The BBC has corrected on average of two stories a week reporting on Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza, The Telegraph reports, citing research by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), a pro-Israel media watchdog.
BBC Arabic has had to make 215 corrections and clarifications since October 7, 2023, the report says, on stories “found to be biased, inaccurate or misleading.”
CAMERA obtained the corrections after over 100 of its complaints over coverage by the BBC’s Arabic service were upheld, according to The Telegraph.
The report comes as the BBC’s boss Tim Davie and its head of news Deborah Turness resigned yesterday following criticism over bias at the British national broadcaster, including in the way it edited a speech that US President Donald Trump made on January 6, 2021, and in its coverage of the Gaza war.
The BBC had been under mounting pressure after an internal report by a former standards adviser was leaked to the Daily Telegraph newspaper last week, citing failings in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, trans issues, and the speech made by Trump.
The report’s section on the Gaza war documented that BBC Arabic’s story selection and editing largely omitted pieces criticizing Hamas or highlighting the suffering of Israelis, including the hostages kidnapped by the terror group.
The BBC has also faced backlash over a number of other issues related to the war, including over a documentary narrated by the child of a Hamas official, and accusations that journalists posted antisemitic content on social media, as well as its coverage of antisemitic chants at the Glastonbury music festival.
Pressure on the network rose when the White House recently denounced the broadcaster as a “propaganda machine,” after its flagship Panorama documentary program last year was found to have edited two parts of Trump’s speech together so he appeared to encourage the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol.
