BBC Faces Accusations of Bias in Israel-Hamas Conflict Coverage

BBC strongly biased against Israel in Gaza reports - study -- RT World News

The broadcaster allegedly breached its own guidelines more than 1,500 times at the height of the Gaza conflict The BBC has displayed a "deeply worrying pattern of bias" against Israel while covering the early phase of hostilities in Gaza, according to a new report publicized by The Telegraph on Saturday. The study, led by Trevor Asserson, a British-born lawyer based in Israel, analyzed four months of the BBC's broadcast early in the conflict, examining its output on television, radio, podcasts, websites, and social media. The research team involved around 20 lawyers and 20 data scientists, who used artificial intelligence to process nine million words of output from the broadcaster. "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, as quoted by The Telegraph. According to the study, the broadcaster allegedly committed a total of 1,553 breaches of its own editorial guidelines, which are supposed to guard impartiality, accuracy, editorial values, and public interest. The BBC has proportionately used certain lexicons to describe the actions of the two parties in the conflict, despite the fact that "Hamas members filmed and publicized themselves committing acts that appear to constitute war crimes," the report asserted. In particular, BBC coverage mentioned "war crimes" in association with Israel four times more than with Hamas, 1,270 times against 30, and "breaching international law" six times more - 167 versus 27. The word "genocide" turned out to be the most used one, with Israel associated with it 283 times and the Palestinian group only 19. "Our analysis reveals a significant deviation from this standard, especially in its reporting on the Israel-Hamas conflict, where the broadcaster showed a clear partiality towards one side. This bias was even more pronounced in the BBC's Arabic content," Asserson stated. The report identified a dozen cases where BBC Arabic's broadcast featured reporters who had previously made statements in support of Hamas or praised the October 7 attack. The BBC had previously acknowledged the latter issue, launching an internal investigation into six reporters. However, the broadcaster dismissed the findings set out in the report, criticizing the methodology used. "We have serious questions about the methodology of this report, particularly its heavy reliance on AI to analyze impartiality, and its interpretation of the BBC's editorial guidelines. We don't think coverage can be assessed solely by counting particular words divorced from context," a BBC spokesperson told The Telegraph, stressing that the corporation is actually "required to achieve due impartiality, rather than the 'balance of sympathy' proposed in the report."

Britain's BBC Accused of 'Deeply Worrying' Pattern of Bias Against Israel Since Start of Hamas War

The report says Israel was associated with genocide 14 times more than Hamas, and that senior journalists regularly downplay acts of terror committed by terrorists. A new report is accusing Britain's preeminent public broadcaster, the British Broadcasting Corporation, of a "deeply worrying" pattern of bias against the state of Israel, with more than 1,500 breaches of the broadcaster's editorial guidelines since the October 7 attacks by Hamas. The report, issued by a team of lawyers and data scientists led by barrister Trevor Asserson, accuses the BBC of repeatedly associating Israel with such phrases as "genocide," "breach of international law," and "war crimes" while all-but ignoring crimes committed by Hamas terrorists and their collaborators, according to reporting from London's Daily Telegraph. Based in Jerusalem, Mr. Asserson is the founder of BBCWatch, which analyzes the broadcaster's coverage of the Middle East. "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 says. The researchers, a team of 20 lawyers and 20 data scientists, scoured some nine million words of BBC output using artificial intelligence. They concluded that Israel was associated with genocide 14 times more than Hamas, and that senior journalists such as International Editor Jeremy Bowen and international correspondent Lyse Doucet of downplaying or excusing acts of terror committed by Hamas. Following the release of the report, leading voices in London along with Jewish groups in the United Kingdom such as the Campaign Against Antisemitism and the National Jewish Assembly repeated earlier calls for an independent inquiry into the BBC's coverage of the conflict in Israel. A former Labour minister, Lord Austin, accused the outlet of "high-handed arrogance" for ignoring the criticism and a former executive for the broadcaster, Danny Cohen, said the broadcaster is now facing an "institutional crisis."

BBC accused of breaching its editorial guidelines 1,553 times in...

The BBC has been accused of breaching its editorial guidelines 1,533 times in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, with the UK outlet allegedly showing repeated bias against the Jewish state, according to a new report. Trevor Asserson, a British-born lawyer based in Israel, said a team of 20 lawyers and 20 data scientists analyzed 9 million words from the BBC using artificial intelligence to discover a "deeply worrying pattern of bias against Israel," The Telegraph said. The research said the BBC associated Israel with genocide 14 times more than Hamas, with the publicly funded outlet allegedly downplaying the role of Hamas terrorism in the war, which has gone on for nearly a year. "Our analysis reveals a significant deviation from this standard, especially in its reporting on the Israel-Hamas conflict, where the broadcaster showed a clear partiality towards one side," Asserson told The Telegraph of the outlet's alleged bias. "Such conduct not only breaches the BBC's Royal Charter but also calls into question its suitability for continued public funding," he added. Along with accusing the BBC of showing bias against Israel in the war coverage, the AI-backed report also claimed that the Jewish state was ultimately presented as a "militaristic and aggressive nation" by the outlet. Meanwhile, the BBC allegedly failed to recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization 12,050 times during the initial four-month period when the war broke out. The BBC's Arabic Channel was also singled out in the report as one of the "most biased" outlets covering the war in Gaza. The BBC said it would "carefully consider" Asserson's report, but the outlet also questioned the researcher's methodology and use of AI. "We don't think coverage can be assessed solely by counting particular words divorced from context," a spokesman told The Telegraph. Laurence Julius, vice chairman of the National Jewish Assembly, said the BBC has a responsibility to report without bias and called for an independent review of the outlet's coverage on Israel. The scrutiny aimed at the BBC comes after several incidents where journalists and staffers at the outlet drew criticism for their off-air interactions with the war. In March, the BBC faced pressure to suspend reporter Soha Ibrahim for reportedly liking videos on social media of people celebrating the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre that left more than 1,200 dead in Israel. Another staffer, Dawn Queva, was also caught making several now-deleted social media posts calling Jewish people "Nazi apartheid parasites."

BBC repeatedly downplayed Hamas terrorism, report finds

The BBC has repeatedly downplayed Palestinian terrorism while presenting Israel as a militaristic and aggressive nation, a report has found. The corporation's coverage of Israel suggests the Jewish state faces "no substantial threat", thereby "delegitimising its decision to prosecute a war", the report claims. By contrast the BBC's coverage of the military strength and actions of Hamas, the terror group which runs Gaza, are given "far less weight", the research led by British lawyer Trevor Asserson found. It claims that BBC correspondents featured in a podcast series which followed the October 7 attacks had "a tendency to portray Israel as a military aggressor" and that by contrast "they tend to portray Palestinians, and Hamas, as militarily weak... creating a 'victim/aggressor' narrative". Other examples include a BBC report on Oct 9 last year, two days after the attacks which killed 1,200 Israelis, which described the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) as "lavishly-funded and prestigious", and another on Oct 16 stating: "Israel's response in the days since the war was another example of its indifference to the suffering of the Palestinian people". The Asserson report analysed the BBC's coverage during a four-month period beginning Oct 7, 2023 - the day Hamas carried out a massacre in southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking another 251 into Gaza as hostages. A team of around 20 lawyers and 20 data scientists contributed to the research, which also used artificial intelligence to calculate the "sympathy ratio" of Israel-Hamas war coverage and analyse nine million words of BBC output. Earlier this week The Telegraph revealed that the report found the BBC breached its own editorial guidelines more than 1,500 times during the height of the Israel-Hamas war. In one example highlighted by the report, a BBC Arabic roundup of newspaper coverage of the conflict last November contrasted a photograph of a Gazan girl being cradled in an adult's arms after an air raid with a photograph of an ultra-orthodox Jew carrying a machine gun. But the report's authors state that the article failed to explain that the Jew carrying a machine gun was returning from the funeral of a Jewish college student shot by Palestinians in the West Bank. The report also points out the photograph was taken in October 2000, more than two decades before the October 7 attacks that prompted Israel's current military response. At the same time the BBC's coverage has a tendency to excuse or downplay acts of terror by Palestinians, the report claims. It says this is achieved by describing Hamas as "gunmen"', "fighters" or "militants", rather than "terrorists", and by describing Hamas as a "resistance" organisation, thereby "indicating that the way they behave may be justified or explained based on the actions of the aggressor (Israel)". Researchers found that the corporation's coverage frequently failed to mention the role terrorism has played in causing the conflict in the region and preventing a long-term peace. The effect of the BBC's coverage is to "place part of the blame for October 7 on Israel", as well as to downplay the massacre that took place that day, the report states. It goes on to claim that the BBC's choice of language also tends to minimise the suffering of Israelis compared with that of Palestinians. On the BBC News at Ten on Nov 1, 2023, Gazan civilians were described as being "starved, traumatised and bombed to death", compared with the more neutral description of Israelis "still in shock over the 7th of October attacks". The report also claims that the BBC tends to give fewer details about Israeli victims of the conflict, with the effect of "dehumanising" its casualties compared with Palestinian victims. It points out that a picture of 28-year-old Israeli hostage Noa Argamani used by the corporation on Jan 1 this year showed her smiling before the war, rather than the distressing image of her being abducted on a motorcycle on October 7 which was seen around the world. A Jan 15 article about the murder of a 70-year-old Israeli woman and a terror attack in Israel gave little detail about her or the other victims. Furthermore, BBC coverage tends to "glorify and glamorise" Hamas, according to the report, which highlights how BBC correspondents described "Hamas's military prowess" and "astonishingly granular understanding of Israeli security". Three days after the October 7 attack, the BBC published an article about Hamas which described the "spectacular attack" as "the most ambitious operation Hamas has ever launched", with the reporter adding that "it was frankly astonishing". The report states: "BBC Arabic content is markedly exaggerated in the trend towards glorifying Hamas, who are regularly depicted as 'Robin Hood' style heroes, with the best interests of the people at heart." A BBC spokesman said: "We have serious questions about the methodology of this report, particularly its heavy reliance on AI to analyse impartiality, and its interpretation of the BBC's editorial guidelines. "We don't think coverage can be assessed solely by counting particular words divorced from context. We are required to achieve due impartiality, rather than the 'balance of sympathy' proposed in the report, and we believe our knowledgeable and dedicated correspondents are achieving this, despite the highly complex, challenging and polarising nature of the conflict. "However, we will consider the report carefully and respond directly to the authors once we have had time to study it in detail."