Mick Hartley

This from February in the Telegraph:

BBC journalists have appeared to support anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and statements that Israel is “pure evil”, despite the corporation promising to crack down on bias.

One reporter based in Egypt liked a tweet in December making unsubstantiated allegations that large numbers of Jews from around the world are buying up land in Northern Cyprus, with the aim being “to seize” the territory for Israel.

The story, propagated in part by some Turkish newspapers, has prompted alarm on the island in recent months, despite officials disputing the numbers.

The same BBC Arabic service journalist, Sally Nabil, liked a tweet endorsing the words of a released Israeli hostage who expressed her “deepest gratitude” to Hamas for her treatment.

Along with several colleagues, Ms Nabil was exposed by The Telegraph in October for liking a comment to a video showing trucks loaded with dead Israelis and kidnapped civilians on October 7.

BBC bosses subsequently said they were “urgently investigating”, but they have not said what disciplinary action was taken.

Corporation insiders said that despite frequent official reminders to maintain due impartiality on social media, in reality senior executives have taken no action when it comes to bias in the context of Israel.

“Senior executives know about these tweets and are simply letting them sit there,” one said.

Has any action been taken since? Well…no. Sally Nabil is currently reporting for BBC Arabic on the Hajj heat deaths.

Former BBC director of BBC Television Danny Cohen in today's Telegraph – The BBC has given up any pretence of impartiality:

The real question here is why, eight months later, Ms Nabil is still working for the BBC, her salary paid for by us all as licence-fee payers. But she is a symptom of a problem, not the problem itself.

The fundamental issue is the failure of the BBC’s most senior executives to get a grip on anti-Israel bias and anti-Semitism in the organisation. In this case, it seems clear that senior BBC management have made the decision that it is acceptable for staff to endorse a racist massacre without any impact on their employment. Given these circumstances, how on earth can Britain’s Jewish community believe that the BBC’s leadership takes anti-Jewish racism seriously and is determined to stamp it out? …

So here are some questions that senior BBC management should take the trouble to answer directly:

How does the BBC justify employing a journalist who has shown support for the worst massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust?

Where would the BBC draw the line, in terms of the enthusiasm journalists would need to display before they are deemed to be an unsuitable member of staff?

Why do BBC managers believe that Sally Nabil is able to maintain due standards of impartiality when her anti-Israel views are causing such great offence?

And finally, if an employee’s prejudice was instead directed at the black or Muslim community, would BBC executives be so seemingly cavalier?

The BBC’s repeated claims that they take issues of anti-Jewish racism seriously are made a mockery of by cases like Ms Nabil. Unfortunately, a pattern has emerged, and it is hard to see it ending any time soon.