{"id":120913,"date":"2025-05-04T17:05:43","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T15:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=120913"},"modified":"2025-05-04T14:06:54","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T12:06:54","slug":"04-05-107","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=120913","title":{"rendered":"BBC to investigate Arabic channel over Gaza coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>BBC to investigate Arabic channel over Gaza coverage<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

David Isaac<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

“The Arabic service, we are looking at it. We’ve been examining it,” said BBC Chairman Samir Shah.<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

BBC Chairman Samir Shah. Credit: Times Radio\/YouTube.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

[ He was raised a Jain in India before coming to England in 1960 aged 9 and later converting to<\/span> Islam to marry his wife Belkis<\/span>. ]<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Samir Shah, chairman of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), told\u00a0Times Radio<\/em>\u00a0on May 3 that the broadcaster is investigating anti-Israel bias in its coverage of the Gaza War and will commission an independent investigation of\u00a0BBC Arabic<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

BBC Arabic<\/em>\u00a0broadcasts 24 hours a day from London and Cairo to the Middle East via TV, radio and internet.<\/span><\/p>\n

In conversation with\u00a0Times Radio<\/em>\u00a0host Rod Liddle, Shah, who was appointed\u00a0BBC<\/em>\u00a0chairman in March 2024, said, \u201cI think this whole business of how we\u2019ve covered Israel-Gaza is a proper thing to examine thoroughly, which is why we\u2019re \u2026 going to get hold of an independent figure to look at our corporation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Liddle said: \u201cYou\u2019re still reporting from Israel with a whole bunch of\u00a0BBC Arabic<\/em>\u00a0correspondents, some \u2026 who have been found to say the most appalling things about Jewish people, such as, \u2018We\u2019re going to burn them until none are left.\u2019 You know, isn\u2019t it time to stop using them?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Liddle was referring to comments by Samer Elzaenen, a regular contributor to\u00a0BBC Arabic<\/em>, who posted antisemitic and anti-Israel comment since 2011,\u00a0The Telegraph<\/em>\u00a0reported.<\/span><\/p>\n

In one post he wrote: \u201cMy message to the Zionist Jews: We are going to take our land back, we love death for Allah\u2019s sake the same way you love life. We shall burn you as Hitler did, but this time we won\u2019t have a single one of you left.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Elzaenen is one of several\u00a0BBC Arabic<\/em>\u00a0contributors who have been discovered to have posted antisemitic content.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ahmed Alagha, who has reported for the British public broadcaster since early 2023,\u00a0described<\/a>\u00a0the Israeli army as \u201cthe embodiment of filth\u201d and referred to Jews as \u201cthe devils of the hypocrites,\u201d according to\u00a0a\u00a0Telegraph<\/em>\u00a0report last month.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Arabic service, we are looking at it. We\u2019ve been examining it,\u201d said Shah.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In March, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting\u00a0and Analysis (CAMERA) issued a report on\u00a0BBC Arabic<\/em>, which it noted is the \u201clargest, most heavily funded and most influential foreign-language service\u201d of the\u00a0BBC<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

CAMERA found\u00a0BBC Arabic<\/em>\u00a0had \u201cbecome synonymous with toxic hostility against Israel and, at times, anti-Jewish racism. It has given a platform to murderous terrorists, presented apologists for terror as independent \u2018experts\u2019, allowed extreme views to go unchallenged in interviews and echoed the language of Hamas.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Following the 33-page CAMERA report, which covered claims spanning four years, Conservative Party Leader Kemi Badenoch in March called for \u201cwholesale reform\u201d of the Arabic-language broadcaster.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also in March, it came to light that\u00a0BBC<\/em>\u00a0Director-General Tim Davie had repeatedly\u00a0rejected<\/a>\u00a0offers of training on antisemitism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lord John Mann, the British government\u2019s official adviser on anti-Jewish discrimination, revealed in an interview with\u00a0The Telegraph<\/em>\u00a0that he had visited the\u00a0BBC<\/em>\u2018s senior leadership to offer training on three occasions since taking up the role in 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0BBC<\/em>\u2018s bias against Israel, which goes beyond its Arabic channel, has been repeatedly documented.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to a Sept. 2024 analysis of 9 million words of\u00a0BBC\u00a0<\/em>output, the\u00a0broadcaster\u00a0violated<\/a>\u00a0its own editorial guidelines 1,553 times during the four-month period beginning Oct. 7, 2023, repeatedly downplaying Hamas terrorism and presenting Israel as an aggressor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among its most recent scandals was the\u00a0documentary<\/a>, \u201cGaza: How to Survive a Warzone,\u201d which utilized a 13-year-old boy as narrator, who turned out to be the son of Hamas Deputy Agriculture Minister Ayman al-Yazouri.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shah, speaking before the U.K. parliament\u2019s Culture, Media & Sport Committee on March 4, admitted the documentary was a \u201cdagger to the heart\u201d of the\u00a0BBC<\/em>\u2018s neutrality.<\/span><\/p>\n

The embarrassment led to an unusual\u00a0apology<\/a>\u00a0by the broadcaster, which in a statement, said that \u201cserious flaws\u201d were made \u201cby the production company, and some by the\u00a0BBC<\/em>; all of them are unacceptable. BBC News takes full responsibility for these and the impact that these have had on the Corporation\u2019s reputation. We apologise for this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At least \u00a3400,000 (just over $500,000) of license payers\u2019 cash\u00a0went<\/a>\u00a0to the production company behind the documentary.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought that the Gaza film was deeply flawed, and so does the board,\u201d Shah told\u00a0Times Radio<\/em>\u00a0on Saturday. \u201cWe have asked for a report. That report is coming to a conclusion. I haven\u2019t seen it yet. And I really think, right now, we\u2019re right at the middle of this, and let\u2019s just wait to see.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the\u00a0BBC<\/em>\u2018s evident bias, Shah defended the broadcaster. Citing survey numbers, he said that 37% said that the\u00a0BBC<\/em>\u00a0provides impartial news. The second closest is\u00a0ITV<\/em>, a British public broadcast television network, at 6%, and the\u00a0Guardian\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Sky News<\/em>, both at 6%.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[W]e still do better than everybody else,\u201d said Shah.<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked if he himself considers Hamas to be a terrorist group, Shah demurred, saying, \u201cI\u2019m here as a chairman of the\u00a0BBC<\/em>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you think they are? Do you think they are a convocation of happy little squirrels?\u201d Liddle pressed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, I am the chairman of the\u00a0BBC<\/em>, and we have taken the view as a board that we continue to use the word terrorist only with attribution,\u201d said Shah.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the\u00a0BBC<\/em>\u2018s editorial guidelines posted on its website: \u201cTerrorism is a difficult and emotive subject with significant political overtones and care is required in the use of language that carries value judgements. We should not use the term \u2018terrorist\u2019 without attribution.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

BBC<\/em>\u00a0has a history of suppressing unflattering reports on its anti-Israel bias. Most egregious is its 20-year suppression of the Balen Report.<\/span><\/p>\n

Commissioned in 2004, the 20,000-word document, written by senior broadcast journalist Malcolm Balen, looked at hundreds of hours of\u00a0BBC<\/em>\u00a0coverage of the Israel-Arab conflict.<\/span><\/p>\n

Leaked elements of the report make it clear that the report found\u00a0BBC\u00a0<\/em>coverage to be biased. Only a select few have seen the full document, as the\u00a0BBC\u00a0<\/em>has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds in court to keep it from going public.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Zawarto\u015b\u0107 publikowanych artyku\u0142\u00f3w i materia\u0142\u00f3w nie reprezentuje pogl\u0105d\u00f3w ani opinii Reunion’68,<\/em>
\nani te\u017c webmastera Blogu Reunion’68, chyba ze jest to wyra\u017anie zaznaczone.
\nTwoje uwagi, linki, w\u0142asne artyku\u0142y lub wiadomo\u015bci prze\u015blij na adres:
\n<\/em>webmaster@reunion68.com<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BBC to investigate Arabic channel over Gaza coverage David Isaac “The Arabic service, we are looking at it. We’ve been examining it,” said BBC Chairman Samir Shah. BBC Chairman Samir Shah. Credit: Times Radio\/YouTube. [ He was raised a Jain in India before coming to England in 1960 aged 9 and later converting to Islam […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120913"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120913"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120930,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120913\/revisions\/120930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=120913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=120913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}