Mick Hartley

From the Telegraph:

The BBC breached its own editorial guidelines more than 1,500 times during the height of the Israel-Hamas war, a damning report has found.

The report revealed a “deeply worrying pattern of bias” against Israel, according to its authors who analysed four months of the BBC’s output across television, radio, online news, podcasts and social media.

The research, led by British lawyer Trevor Asserson, also found that Israel was associated with genocide more than 14 times more than Hamas in the corporation’s coverage of the conflict.

On Saturday, Danny Cohen, a former BBC executive, warned that there was now an “institutional crisis” at the national broadcaster and called for an independent inquiry into its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.

Two leading Jewish groups, the Campaign Against Antisemitism and the National Jewish Assembly, added their voices to calls for an independent review, while Lord Austin, a former Labour minister, accused the BBC of “high-handed arrogance” for continually dismissing questions over its impartiality….

Researchers identified a total of 1,553 breaches of the BBC’s editorial guidelines, which included impartiality, accuracy, editorial values and public interest.

“The findings reveal a deeply worrying pattern of bias and multiple breaches by the BBC of its own editorial guidelines on impartiality, fairness and establishing the truth,” the report said.

It also found that the BBC repeatedly downplayed Hamas terrorism while presenting Israel as a militaristic and aggressive nation.

It claimed that some journalists used by the BBC in its coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict have previously shown sympathy for Hamas and even celebrated its acts of terror.

Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s international editor, is accused of excusing Hamas’s terrorist activities and comparing Israel to Putin’s Russia, while Lyse Doucet, the BBC’s chief international correspondent, is also cited for allegedly “downplaying” the October 7 attacks on Israel.

The report singles out the BBC’s Arabic channel, saying that it is one of the most biased of all global media outlets in its treatment of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

It identifies 11 cases where it claims the BBC Arabic’s coverage of the war has featured reporters who have previously made public statements in support of terrorism and specifically Hamas, without viewers being informed of this.

Researchers analysed the BBC coverage over the four-month period to assess the portrayal of war crimes.

“Hamas members filmed and publicised themselves committing acts which appear to constitute war crimes,” the report said, including the taking of hostages, wilful killing or murder, torture or inhuman treatment and rape or sexual violence.

But despite this, the report’s analysis of BBC coverage found that Israel was associated with war crimes four times more than Hamas (127 versus 30), with genocide 14 times more (283 versus 19) and with breaching international law six times more (167 versus 27).

Danny Cohen, a director of BBC Television:

Over the past 11 months, the BBC has consistently denied that there are significant problems with its reporting of the Israel-Hamas war. Well-evidenced complaints have been ignored, excuses made and corrections only issued after weeks of delays.

The focus of the BBC’s senior leadership appears to have been on reputation management rather than a transparent relationship with licence-fee payers about the failings in its coverage.

Now, almost a year since the terrorist massacres of Oct 7, a detailed data analysis of the BBC’s reporting has revealed a systemic failure by the corporation to report on the conflict with due impartiality and accuracy.

The Asserson Report on the BBC’s coverage of the war is wide-ranging and comprehensive. It takes in nine million words published by the BBC on its websites and hundreds of hours of flagship broadcasts including the News at Ten and Newsnight. Its conclusions are shocking but not surprising.

Take first the BBC’s portrayal of Hamas. Detailed analysis has revealed that the BBC is more likely to describe Hamas in relation to its “health ministry” than as a proscribed terrorist organisation. Given the butchery of Oct 7, many British Jews will find this revelation simply sickening. Certainly it suggests a failure by the BBC to provide audiences with the full and proper context for events that balanced reporting demands.

The report also reveals that the BBC has shown consistent bias against Israel. Again the detail is highly revealing, with Israel being accused of war crimes in the BBC’s reporting six times more often than Hamas, despite the killings on Oct 7 being documented in video footage that the terrorists filmed themselves. Other than as a result of deep-rooted bias, how is it possible that the BBC’s emphasis on “war crimes” is so consistently directed towards Israel?

I've long since given up on the BBC's Israel/Palestine reporting. I remember back in November, when BBC reporter Lucy Williamson reported breathlessly from the West Bank on the horrific abuse Palestinian prisoners were subjected to in Israeli jails. A young man posed with his family, his hands bandaged after beatings from the sadistic guards, with x-rays certified by Palestinian doctors showing broken bones, smashed with hammers. The Israel Prison Service actually had a video showing the lad being released – quite clearly unharmed. But of course, for the BBC, everything that the Palestinians/Hamas say must be true, and the duplicitous Jews are always lying. Whether through gullibility or bias, it's regularly allowed itself to be used as a mouthpiece for Hamas propaganda.