Madrid November 10 (Europe Press) –
The Israeli government has called on those responsible to take “full responsibility” for what it deemed “editorial errors” in reporting on military attacks in the Gaza Strip, following the resignation of BBC director general Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness.
“We call on those responsible for the BBC’s Arabic editorial failures to be held fully accountable and that full reforms are implemented to ensure that future reporting meets the standards expected of the BBC,” the Embassy of Israel in the UK said in a statement posted on the social network’s X account, saying it was “noted” by the resignations announced this Sunday.
The diplomatic mission stressed that the resignations were taken “following serious and long-standing concerns about the BBC’s biased and seriously flawed coverage of Israel, particularly during the war with (Islamic Resistance Movement) Hamas,” but these decisions were primarily motivated by the controversy caused by the broadcast of a fragmented speech by US President Donald Trump, in which he appeared to explicitly encourage his supporters to storm the Capitol during the January intrusion. 2021 at the headquarters of the North American Congress.
“Over the years, we have repeatedly warned the BBC of its failure to meet the standards of accuracy, fairness and integrity expected of public broadcasters,” it added, accusing the British Arabic broadcaster of “too often distorting reality, omitting important context and providing a platform for anti-Semitic and extremist discourse.”
Israeli authorities asserted that the reporting had “contributed to public misinformation, hostility towards Israel and the Jewish people, and the radicalization of audiences in the UK and across the Middle East,” and therefore expressed hope that Davie and Turnes’ departure would be “a turning point.”
Along these lines, he called on the heads of UK networks to “restore public trust by ensuring fair, objective and balanced coverage of Israel and the region”.
Mr Davie, who took up the role in September 2020, left the network after 20 years with the network after the Telegraph published details of a leaked internal BBC memo suggesting one of its programs had edited out two parts of Trump’s speech with manipulated messages. The document was signed by Michael Prescott, a former independent external adviser to the bureau’s Editorial Standards Board who resigned from his position in June.
President Trump’s original phrase, “We’re going to march to the Capitol and cheer on our brave senators and representatives,” was changed by the editing room of the documentary “Panorama,” to “We’re going to walk to the Capitol, and I’ll be there with you. And we’re going to fight. We’re going to fight like the devil,” which aired last year. The two sections of the speech that were edited together were more than 50 minutes apart.
The memo also said the BBC’s Arabic-language broadcaster displayed pro-Palestinian bias during its coverage of the Gaza war and had deliberately “censored” reactionary conservative voices in the gender identity debate, “treating trans experiences as a celebration of diversity without balance or objectivity, while ignoring the complexity of the issue”.
About The Author
