British broadcaster BBC has violated its editorial standards more than 1,500 times in its coverage of the war between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group.
This is according to 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 radio and television broadcasts, online posts, social platforms and BBC podcasts.
According to the results, BBC news reports associated Israel much more often than Hamas with concepts such as “genocide,” “war crimes,” and “violations of international law.” 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 sympathies for Hamas.
The study particularly singled out Jeremy Bowen and Lise Doucet, who were accused of watering down information about Hamas’s terrorist activities and often portraying Israel in a negative light. Bowen, for example, compared Israel’s actions to Russian aggression against Ukraine, raising questions about her neutrality.
BBC Arabic has also come under fire, with journalists supporting Hamas without informing viewers of their bias. There were 11 such incidents recorded, and the reports themselves were often anti-Israeli in nature.
The study was carried out by a team of 40 specialists using artificial intelligence and analysing nine million words of BBC material over four months. There were 1,553 breaches of standards relating to impartiality, accuracy and editorial policy.
The BBC, responding to criticism, expressed doubts about the investigative methods, especially the use of artificial intelligence. However, several Jewish organisations and former corporate chief Danny Cohen have demanded an independent investigation, saying the situation shows a deep crisis within the BBC.
Earlier, Cursor reported on how the BBC described the deadly Hamas terror attack as a “military operation.”
