UK broadcasters ‘systematically biased’ against Palestinians: Academic  

UK broadcasters, including the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), have a long-standing pro-Israel bias and disseminate Zionist talking points, according to an academic.

David Miller, a UK-based pro-Palestinian professor, who was forced out of his job at the University of Bristol after the pro-Israel lobby accused him of anti-Semitism, criticized UK broadcasters for their marked bias in favor of the Zionist regime.

Those broadcasters give much more explanation to Israeli points of view than they do to Palestinians and they provide more time to the Israeli leaders than to the Palestinians, he told Press TV’s weekly show Palestine Declassified aired on Sunday.

“All legitimate research done in this area shows that it is the Zionist talking point and frames of reference that are used on the BBC and by other broadcasters, including ITV and ITN in the UK,” Miller said, citing Glasgow University Media Group’s 2011 study of British TV’s coverage of Israel and the Palestinians, More Bad News from Israel.

The study, led by academics Greg Philo and Mike Berry, revealed irrefutable evidence of endemic pro-Israel bias. It examined sample coverage from the main news bulletins on BBC and ITV, which are the most popular TV news programs in the UK.

Bullying of the BBC

This episode will examine recent attacks on the BBC and lay out how BBC ability to report on Palestine is constrained from multiple Zionist influences.

Despite the broadcasters’ prejudiced attitude against Palestinians, Miller said, the Israelis keep making a fuss about the anti-Semitism in the media.

“It is well known that the BBC and other broadcasters are biased systematically against the Palestinians. But of course, that does not detain the Zionists to nevertheless complain about rising trends of [hatred toward Jews] in the media, and all this kind of thing is palpable nonsense,” he said.

On numerous occasions, Israeli lobbyists have managed to turn the tide by offering feeble excuses and voicing concerns over so-called rising anti-Semitism. 

In December 2021, a bus of Jewish young people visited Oxford Street to celebrate Hanukkah. A confrontation developed between the Jewish visitors and passing young Muslims during which anti-Israel slogans were voiced.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews claimed it was an anti-Semitic incident. The BBC led on that angle but also reported that anti-Muslim racial slurs were heard. In response, the board of deputies commissioned two companies and an academic expert to do the forensic analysis of the recording. Both claimed that the phrase “dirty Muslims” was not used, but that a Hebrew phrase calling for help was heard.

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Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator, later said that the BBC report on the anti-Muslim slur was not in breach of the Broadcasting Code, but it should have included the alternative views sooner once they emerged, saying the report's content was causing “distress and anxiety” to the victims of the attack and the wider Jewish community.

In spite of BBC’s systematic preference for the Israeli point of view, the Zionists did not stop pretending that the corporation is anti-Israel and anti-Semitic, Miller said.

“They are trying to do some propaganda here to bully the BBC, which has been very effective,” he added.

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