Mick Hartley

A Camera UK report on BBC Arabic:

BBC Arabic is a foreign language service that broadcasts 24 hours a day from London and Cairo to the Middle East, across TV, radio and online.

It is the BBC World Service’s largest, most heavily funded and most influential foreign-language service. It is part funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and reaches a weekly audience of 38 million people across the Arab-speaking world.

Far from embedding the values of the BBC, BBC Arabic has become synonymous with toxic hostility against Israel and, at times, anti-Jewish racism. It has given a platform to murderous terrorists, presented apologists for terror as independent ‘experts’, allowed extreme views to go unchallenged in interviews and echoed the language of Hamas.

It has subjected Israeli guests to biased and hostile questioning, downplayed attacks on Israelis and failed to swiftly remove antisemitic comments posted online.

BBC Arabic staff who posted in support of the barbaric rape, murder and kidnap of innocent men, women and children on 7 October 2023 continue to work for the organisation.

This document charts four years under Tim Davie’s leadership in which senior executives and the BBC Board have failed to stamp out the extraordinary bias within BBC Arabic despite repeated demands for change.

Full report here.

Kemi is on the case:

Kemi Badenoch has called for “wholesale reform” of the BBC Arabic channel after a report accused it of “appalling antisemitism and anti-Israel bias”.

The Conservative leader wrote to Tim Davie, the director-general, to set out concerns about the World Service channel on Friday, weeks after warning that her party will withdraw its support for the licence fee if the BBC fails to tackle her concerns about bias….

Badenoch’s letter came after a ­report from the media watchdog the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (Camera), which accused the channel of “anti-Israel bias, toxic antisemitism and the promotion of Hamas propaganda”.

The 33-page report covers claims spanning four years, including providing a “platform to terrorists”, presenting apologists as independent “experts” and ­allowing extreme views to go ­unchallenged in interviews. It also ­accused BBC Arabic of echoing Hamas language.

In her letter, the leader of the opposition accused the BBC of losing its grip on the World Service channel.

“A public-service broadcaster ­appears to have become a regular platform for race-hate, extremism and the endorsement of terror,” Badenoch said. “BBC Arabic is intended to provide high-quality, trusted news for the ­hundreds of millions of people who speak Arabic. It should uphold the highest standards of public-service broadcasting. Instead, it seems that the World Service may be fomenting ­extremism and misleading audiences — while funded by the taxpayer and ­licence fees. This is simply unacceptable and must stop.”

Badenoch repeated her threat, made after the documentary was shown, that the Conservative Party would withdraw its support for the licence fee “without real action” from BBC bosses.