A top political writer has accused the BBC of employing journalists "who celebrated the rape and murder of Jews" following a damning new report into the broadcaster's coverage of Hamas' attack on Israel and its aftermath.
The Asserson report, led by British lawyer Trevor Asserson, analysed the BBC’s coverage during a four-month period beginning October 7, 2023 – the day Hamas carried out a brutal massacre in southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking another 251 into Gaza as hostages.
The report used artificial intelligence to analyse nine million words of BBC output across television, radio, online news, podcasts and social media, and identified a total of 1,553 breaches of the BBC’s editorial guidelines, which included impartiality, accuracy, editorial values and public interest.
“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.
It claimed that the BBC repeatedly downplayed Hamas terrorism, including its seeming refusal to label the group as such, while presenting Israel as a militaristic and aggressive nation.
The report also claimed that several of its journalists in the Middle East had previously shown sympathy for Hamas and even celebrated its acts of terror on October 7.
The reports highlight an asymmetry between the number of times the BBC associated Israel with genocide compared to Hamas
The Asserson report
The findings "won't come as a shock to most people", Spiked Political Editor Brendan O'Neill tells GB News, claiming: "If you watch their [BBC] news coverage, they're obsessed with Israel. They've neglected every other conflict in the world to focus on what's going on with Israel and Gaza. The way they talk about Israel is often unhinged and biased."
He cites a litany of examples included in the report, including the asymmetry between the number of times the BBC associated Israel with genocide compared to Hamas.
Israel was linked to genocide 14 times more frequently and to breaching international law six times more often than Hamas in the analysed coverage.
The BBC described Hamas as a "proscribed", "designated" or "recognised" terrorist organisation in just 3.2 per cent of mentions over the four-month period examined.
For Mr O'Neill, the most shocking allegation to come out of the report is that the public broadcaster, "which we are all compelled by law to finance, had on its rota journalists who supported Hamas; journalists who supported the rape and murder of Jews on the 7th of October".
The research cited 11 cases where BBC Arabic coverage featured reporters who had allegedly made public statements supporting terrorism and Hamas, without informing viewers.
It highlights how reporters at the Arabic channel endorsed comments likening Hamas, which is a designated terrorist group, to freedom fighters, as well as describing the October 7 atrocity as a “morning of hope”.
The report also accuses Marie-Jose Al Azzi, a Lebanese reporter, of being anti-Israel after she reportedly described the country as a “terrorist apartheid state” in a post that was subsequently deleted.
Last year, the BBC took six reporters in the Middle East off air pending an investigation into posts on social media that seemed to support the activities of Hamas against Israel.
"This is incredibly serious. We all make fun of the BBC. We all say it's gone hyper woke and it's always bashing Brexit and is a pain in the neck but what this report reveals is that the broadcaster is in the grip of moral decay. It has lost its way so badly that I don't think it can ever recover it. This is a crisis of the institution we've never seen before," Mr O'Neill said.
Brendan O'Neill claims the BBC 'has lost its way so badly that I don't think it can ever recover it'
GB News
The BBC said it would “carefully consider” the report, which has been submitted to Tim Davie, its director general, and Samir Shah, its chairman, as well as all its board members.
A spokesman for the corporation added that it had “serious questions” about the report’s methodology.
Mr Shah told the House of Lords’ Communications and Digital Committee following the report's publication that the “Israel-Gaza story is a very, very complicated story, and they have very strong emotions on both sides”.
He added the subject for “the next thematic review” is being considered by the BBC, and the “Middle East conflict is one area we should consider very seriously to be subject to systematic analysis of our coverage”.
Mr Davie, who also appeared before peers, said he wants to “reassure” people that “journalists are doing an outstanding job under the most ferocious pressure, the personal pressure, the lobbying, with reports from both sides”.
Responding to allegations in the report that complaints are not managed properly, he said: “Every complaint that comes in, and this is where I do dispute what’s written, is taken seriously.”
He added that “not everyone agrees with the outcome” of complaints about the BBC Arabic service, and “the overall public response is good, but that does not mean we’re perfect”.
MPs, peers and several Jewish groups expressed concern at the report’s findings.
Sir Oliver Dowden, the shadow deputy prime minister, said: “The BBC is one of the premier news services in the world, and to hear that standards may be slipping in such a severe way like this, risks tarnishing the reputation of our news service.
“Serious questions should be asked as to why this has been allowed to happen, and licence-fee payers should expect to see the BBC stick to its own editorial guidelines.”
Lord Polak, the honorary president of the Conservative Friends of Israel, said: “There’s a clear pattern. Other broadcasters have also made errors, but the BBC keeps getting it wrong. It’s shameful, it’s wrong and what’s worse – the BBC knows it.”
Laurence Julius, vice-chairman of the National Jewish Assembly, called for an independent review of BBC’s Israel coverage, saying: “The BBC as the world’s most influential media company with a global audience of over 500 million including influential thought leaders has a duty to report news accurately without bias or distortion and to explain the context. The BBC has failed abjectly and this is nurturing an anti-Israel and anti-Semitic narrative across its network. It has to change.”