101 BBC staff accuse broadcaster of Israel bias in Gaza war coverage
More than 100 BBC employees have accused the British corporation of providing favorable coverage toward Israel while covering the regime’s more than one-year-long genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza.
In a letter sent to Director-General of the BBC Tim Davie, signed by more than 230 members of the media industry, including 101 anonymous BBC staff, the signatories called on the broadcaster to “recommit to fairness, accuracy, and impartiality” over its reporting on Israeli atrocities in Gaza.
The letter denounced the corporation for failing its editorial standards by lacking “consistently fair and accurate evidence-based journalism in its coverage of Gaza,” The Independent reported which saw the letter.
The letter has also been signed by British politician Sayeeda Warsi and actor Juliet Stevenson. It calls on the BBC to report “without fear or favor” and to “recommit to the highest editorial standards—with emphasis on fairness, accuracy, and due impartiality.”
Baroness Warsi resigned from the opposition Conservative Party in September, saying it had moved too far to the right.
Britain’s first Muslim cabinet minister, who sits in the House of Lords, described the tipping point for her resignation as David Cameron's refusal to condemn the Israeli killing of four Palestinian children as they were playing football.
Other signatories on the list include the historian William Dalrymple, Dr. Catherine Happer, a senior lecturer in sociology and director of media at the University of Glasgow, Rizwana Hamid, the director at the Centre for Media Monitoring, and the broadcaster John Nicolson.
The letter urges the BBC to implement a series of editorial commitments including “reiterating that Israel does not give external journalists access to Gaza; making it clear when there is insufficient evidence to back up Israeli claims; making clear where Israel is the perpetrator in article headlines; including regular historical context predating October 2023; and robustly challenging Israeli government and military representatives in all interviews.”
A current BBC staff member who has signed the letter told The Independent that some of their colleagues have quit their jobs over the corporation’s coverage of Israel’s war in Gaza.
“I have never, in my entire career, witnessed such low levels of staff confidence,” they said. “I have colleagues who have left the BBC in recent months because they just don’t believe our reporting on Israel and Palestine is honest. So many of us feel paralyzed by the levels of fear.”
Another said they were “losing faith in the organization [they] work for,” having seen a “huge disparity” in the BBC’s approach towards Israel.
“People are going elsewhere to find the reality of what is happening because we are simply not giving it to them,” the person said.
It is not the first time the BBC has been criticized for bias during the Gaza war.
In September, the BBC was accused of blocking the launch of a major national appeal to raise funds for humanitarian assistance for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), an umbrella organization of 15 leading UK aid charities, was set to launch an appeal with the main national broadcasters to raise funds for humanitarian assistance for the people of Gaza.
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