The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was found guilty of “significant editorial failings” following an investigation by the UK media regulator Ofcom into the broadcaster’s coverage of an antisemitic attack on a busload of Jewish students in London last year.
Ofcom slammed the taxpayer-funded outlet following a report about the incident in which a group of men performed Nazi salutes and spat at a group of Jewish youths celebrating Hannukah on December 1, 2021.
The BBC had baselessly claimed the victims hurled the slur “dirty Muslims” at their attackers after footage of the attack went viral on social media — despite Hebrew speakers confirming the phrase that had actually been uttered by one of the bus’ occupants was, “tikra lemishehu, ze dachuf,” meaning, “call someone, it’s urgent.”
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Despite a raft of complaints following the initial story, the BBC stuck to its guns and amended the piece in a way that still defamed the Jewish students, specifically claiming that “a slur about Muslims can also be heard from inside the bus.”
HonestReporting and other Jewish groups in the UK refused to allow the BBC to renege on its duty to report the news with accuracy and impartiality and mounted formal complaints to Ofcom, which, in January this year, launched a full-scale inquiry into the BBC’s conduct.
.@HonestReporting welcomes @Ofcom‘s decision, prompted by ours & others who justifiably complained about the BBC’s appalling failure to meet basic journalistic standards. We call for further investigation into the BBC’s complaints procedures, which are clearly unfit for purpose. https://t.co/M5EnTtxASQ
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) November 7, 2022
Now, in a clear vindication of our complaint, the media regulator has slammed the BBC for failing to adhere to its own editorial guidelines:
The BBC failed to promptly acknowledge that the audio was disputed and did not update its online news article to reflect this for almost eight weeks. During this time the BBC was aware that the article’s content was causing significant distress and anxiety to the victims of the attack and the wider Jewish community.
This, in our opinion, was a significant failure to observe its editorial guidelines to report the news with due accuracy and due impartiality.
We also carefully considered a related news report broadcast on BBC London News. Our investigation took into account the steps the BBC took, the information reasonably available to the BBC at the time of broadcast, as well as the fact that the report’s primary focus was on the antisemitic attack. Given these contextual factors, we concluded that at the time it was broadcast and for the 24-hour period it was available on the BBC iPlayer, the programme did not breach our rules.
That said, the BBC made a serious editorial misjudgment by not reporting on air, at any point, that the claim it had made about anti-Muslim slurs was disputed, once new evidence emerged.
This failure to respond promptly and transparently created an impression of defensiveness by the BBC among the Jewish community. It demonstrates that the BBC has further to go in learning how to respond when its reporting is in contention. We will review how the BBC has addressed the complaints handling and transparency issues raised by this case.”
Ofcom also observed that the BBC’s reporting failures came just two months after the BBC published the results of the Serota Review, which concluded there was a “culture of defensiveness” at the corporation, which results in a tendency to “rush into immediate defence of BBC content and an unwillingness to admit mistakes, especially in the face of external pressure.”
The regulator has recommended the BBC implement an Impartiality and Editorial Standards Action Plan after which Ofcom will review how the BBC addressed the complaints handling and transparency issues raised.
HonestReporting Editorial Director Simon Plosker said in response:
“The BBC is clearly incapable of investigating itself in a fair and impartial manner. While Ofcom’s findings are welcome, this is just further evidence of a serious systemic problem when it comes to the BBC’s coverage of both Jews and Israel. That various organizations, including HonestReporting, were forced to turn to Ofcom proves, as has been the case over many years, that the BBC’s complaints procedures are not fit for purpose.”
While the BBC recently accepted that it had for years handled complaints relating to a perceived anti-Israel bias in its reportage in an “unacceptable” manner, it is clear that the corporation can still go much further in addressing its editorial shortcomings.
For one, the BBC could at last release the long-buried Balen Report that laid bare the true scale of its institutional anti-Israel bias.
If the BBC is truly serious about redeeming itself in the eyes of the Jewish community that it has so abjectly failed over the years, it must be transparent about all of its past wrongs.
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