Study: BBC, in covering the war in Gaza, violated its editorial guidelines over 1500 times
According to a study published by The Telegraph, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) breached its editorial standards over 1500 times in its coverage of the war between Israel and HAMAS. The study, conducted by a team of 40 specialists, covered television and radio broadcasts, online resources, podcasts, and BBC social networks for four months, starting from October 7, 2023. Artificial intelligence methods were used for analysis, processing about nine million words.
The study found that the BBC often refrained from calling HAMAS a terrorist organization, justifying this by the need to remain “neutral”. Out of 12,459 mentions of HAMAS in BBC news, only in 409 cases (3.2%) was the word “terrorists” used. Meanwhile, Israel was associated with concepts such as “genocide”, “war crimes”, and “violation of international law” 14 times more often than HAMAS.
It is noted that some journalists, whom the BBC used to cover the conflict between Israel and Gaza, had previously expressed sympathy for HAMAS and even praised acts of terror.
The work of the BBC’s Arabic service was particularly problematic, with the report documenting 11 cases where reporters publicly supported HAMAS, not hiding their bias. The study also highlighted two leading journalists — Jeremy Bowen and Lyse Doucet, who systematically downplayed HAMAS’s terrorist activities while portraying Israel in a negative light.
The report was initiated by British lawyer Trevor Asserson, who has been tracking BBC’s coverage of events in Israel for two decades.
