New report The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has pleaded guilty to breaking its own editorial guidelines more than 1,000 times in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
According to The TelegraphThe report analysed four months of BBC output across TV, radio, online, podcasts and social media at the height of the conflict and found a “deeply worrying pattern of bias” against Israel.
British lawyer Trevor Asserson and a team of around 20 lawyers and 20 data scientists used artificial intelligence to analyse nine million words from the news outlet since the day of the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks.
The researchers allegedly found 1,553 instances where the BBC breached its own editorial principles on impartiality, accuracy, editorial values and the public interest.
Hundreds of people take part in a protest organised by the National Jewish Assembly, the Campaign Against Antisemitism and British Lawyers for Israel at BBC Broadcasting House on October 16, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Guy Smallman/Getty Images)
The BBC report accuses Hamas of downplaying the scale of terrorism and portraying Israel as the aggressor in dozens of cases.
Israel was associated with “war crimes” four times more often than Hamas (127 vs. 30), with genocide 14 times more often (283 vs. 19), and with violations of international law six times more often than Hamas (167 vs. 27).
The report claims that BBC reporters who have expressed hostility towards Israel on social media have also featured in the channel's war reports.
Researchers reportedly found 11 cases on BBC Arabic featuring reporters who had previously made public statements supporting terrorism and Hamas.
“The findings of the investigation reveal a deeply disturbing picture of bias and multiple breaches by the BBC of its own editorial principles of impartiality, fairness and truth-telling,” the report said, according to the Telegraph.
An aerial view of protesters taking part in the March on the DNC in Chicago, Illinois. Pro-Hamas demonstrators came to the Windy City to protest the U.S. government's handling of the Middle East conflict. (Fox News Digital)
A BBC spokesman in a statement questioned the report's methodology and said they would “carefully consider” the report's findings after reviewing it. Fox News Digital.
“We have serious concerns about the methodology of this report, in particular its heavy reliance on AI to analyse impartiality and its interpretation of the BBC's editorial guidelines. We do not believe that coverage can be assessed solely by counting individual words out of context. We are required to achieve due impartiality, not the 'balance of sympathies' suggested in the report, and we believe that our knowledgeable and dedicated correspondents are achieving this despite the highly complex, difficult and polarising nature of the conflict,” the spokesperson said.
“However, we will review the report carefully and respond directly to the authors once we have had time to review it in detail,” the spokesman added.
The BBC also strongly rejected claims in the report that its reporters “glorified acts of terror”.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism said the report exposed the BBC's ideological bias.
“Despite repeated claims of impartiality and stubbornness in the face of complaints, the BBC's ideological bias is now shamefully obvious. This report confirms with empirical evidence what we have been saying – and what the Jewish community has known – for a long time,” the group said, citing a report by The Telegraph.
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“Our poll shows that the vast majority of British Jews – 86% – believe that anti-Israel bias in our media is fuelling antisemitism. The BBC must apologise for its biased and inflammatory reporting, but because the BBC has so stubbornly closed ranks and denied the problem for decades, the fundamental reform that is clearly needed must come from outside. The response to this report must begin with a transparent and free independent investigation,” the statement said.
The BBC has been criticised for refusing to recognise Hamas as a terrorist group following the events of 7 October. In the previous statement In an interview with Fox News Digital, the BBC said it uses the “terrorist” label when it is attributed to others, such as the UK government.