There has reportedly been turmoil in the BBC’s Middle East offices since Hamas launched its brutal October 7 attack on Israel after some of the broadcaster’s own journalists turned against their employer and accused the BBC of promoting a “pro-Israel” narrative in its coverage.
Allegations of such slanted reportage will, no doubt, come as a surprise to many — not least because the BBC’s reporting has repeatedly come under fire since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, including when it backtracked after falsely reporting that an Israeli strike on the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza had killed hundreds
The BBC has also shied away from addressing concerns about its coverage, preferring instead to issue mealy-mouthed apologies about how such mistakes merely “fell below the BBC’s editorial standards.”
"We apologize for this error, which fell below our usual editorial standards."
That's a pretty low bar these days, @BBCNews. https://t.co/HLfs9gNBJQ
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) November 15, 2023
But accusations by staff of a pro-Israel bias were reportedly enough to compel the director of the BBC’s Global Service, Liliane Landor, to hold a series of meetings with employees to address their concerns.
According to BBC journalists quoted in Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, Landor is said to have asked staff for evidence of the alleged pro-Israel bias while assuring them that both Hamas and the Palestinians “should not be considered less credible than the Israelis.”
Landor also reportedly said that “it is wrong to use expressions like massacre to describe Hamas’s behavior and avoid using them to describe Israeli attacks” on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.
One journalist who attended the meeting is quoted in Al-Ahram saying that they “have never seen such a widespread revolution, comprehensive dissatisfaction, and open anger from Arab journalists since [they] joined the institution more than 22 years ago.”
Another journalist working in the BBC’s Jordan office is said to have cried and told Landor: “I never imagined that the BBC would follow double standards in covering the war. I can no longer be proud to be a journalist at the BBC.”
One staff member reportedly warned that the “BBC does not realize or appreciate the extent of dissatisfaction in the Middle East from our shameful coverage that makes us threatened in our countries.”
Following the meetings, it is claimed a special team was formed that would specifically deal with staff complaints about the coverage and receive opinions on rectifying harm caused by the alleged bias.
The new measure, however, was apparently not enough to quell staff outrage and a journalist told Al-Ahram that discussions are underway for Arab service journalists to take part in a strike “unless the management takes urgent measures to fix the clear professional flaw in the BBC’s coverage of the current war on Gaza.”
At least two journalists — one in the BBC’s Beirut office and another correspondent based in Tunisia — reportedly resigned in protest at the corporation’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
HonestReporting has reached out to the BBC to comment on the remarks made by Landor, specifically if it is the UK taxpayer-funded corporation’s official position that Hamas should not be considered less credible than the Israeli government and whether the BBC agrees with Landor that the October 7 attack should not be described as a “massacre.”
In addition, we asked whether the broadcaster wished to address reports that two journalists had resigned from their jobs.
We received no response.
We wonder whether saying a terrorist group that slaughtered 1,200 mostly Israeli civilians should be considered as trustworthy as the democratically elected government of Israel lives up to the BBC’s supposedly high editorial standards.
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Photo credit: AIB (Association for International Broadcasting) via Flickr
