2024-09-12 09:28:34
The British broadcaster BBC has breached its editorial standards more than 1,500 times in its coverage of the war between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas.
This is stated in a report published by The Telegraph.
The study, conducted by British lawyer Trevor Asserson, covered the period from October 7, 2023, and found bias against Israel. The analysis included TV and radio broadcasts, online posts, social media platforms and BBC podcasts.
According to the findings, Israel was significantly more often associated with concepts such as “genocide,” “war crimes,” and “violations of international law” in BBC news reports than Hamas. For example, Israel was mentioned 14 times more often in the context of genocide and four times more often when discussing war crimes. The report also highlighted that some journalists showed sympathy for Hamas.
The study singled out Jeremy Bowen and Liz Doucet in particular, accusing them of soft-pedaling Hamas’s terrorist activities and frequently portraying Israel in a negative light. Bowen, for example, compared Israel’s actions to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, raising doubts about his neutrality.
BBC Arabic has also come under fire for documenting cases of journalists supporting Hamas without disclosing their bias to viewers. There have been 11 such incidents, with the reports often being anti-Israel.
The study was carried out by a team of 40 experts using artificial intelligence to analyse nine million words of BBC content over four months. It found 1,553 breaches of standards relating to impartiality, accuracy and editorial policy.
The BBC has responded to the criticism by raising doubts about its research methods, particularly its use of artificial intelligence. However, several Jewish groups and former BBC chief Danny Cohen have called for an independent investigation, saying the situation highlights a deep crisis within the BBC.
Earlier, Cursor reported on how the BBC channel called the deadly Hamas terrorist attack a “military operation.”