BBC Accused of 1,553 Editorial Violations in Coverage of Israel-Hamas Conflict

A new report has accused the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) of violating its own editorial guidelines over a thousand times in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict. The report, which analyzed four months of BBC output, found a "deeply worrying pattern of bias" against Israel.

A new report has accused the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) of violating its own editorial guidelines over a thousand times in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict. The report, which analyzed four months of BBC output, found a "deeply worrying pattern of bias" against Israel.

BBC Accused of 1,553 Editorial Violations in Coverage of Israel-Hamas Conflict

The report was commissioned by the Campaign Against Antisemitism and conducted by a team of 20 lawyers and 20 data scientists led by British lawyer Trevor Asserson. The team used artificial intelligence to analyze nine million words from the BBC, starting the day of the October 7, 2023, terror attack.

The researchers identified 1,553 instances where the BBC violated its own editorial guidelines on impartiality, accuracy, editorial values, and public interest. The report accuses the BBC of downplaying Hamas terrorism and painting Israel as the aggressor in dozens of instances.

BBC Accused of 1,553 Editorial Violations in Coverage of Israel-Hamas Conflict

For example, the report found that Israel was associated with "war crimes" four times more frequently than Hamas (127 vs. 30); genocide 14 times more often (283 vs. 19), and breaching international law six times more often than Hamas (167 vs. 27).

The report also found that BBC reporters who had shown hostility toward Israel on social media were also featured in the network's war coverage. For example, the report found 11 instances on the BBC's Arabic channel where it featured reporters who had previously made public statements in support of terrorism and Hamas.

BBC Accused of 1,553 Editorial Violations in Coverage of Israel-Hamas Conflict

"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.

A spokesperson for the BBC questioned the report's methodology and said they would "carefully consider" the report's findings after reviewing it.

"We have serious questions about the methodology of this report, particularly its heavy reliance on AI to analyze impartiality, and its interpretation of the BBC’s editorial guidelines. We don’t think coverage can be assessed solely by counting particular words divorced from context. We are required to achieve due impartiality, rather than the ‘balance of sympathy’ proposed in the report, and we believe our knowledgeable and dedicated correspondents are achieving this, despite the highly complex, challenging, and polarizing nature of the conflict," the spokesperson said. 

"However, we will consider the report carefully and respond directly to the authors once we have had time to study it in detail," the spokesperson added.

The BBC also staunchly rejected the report's claims that its reporters "celebrated acts of terror."

The Campaign Against Antisemitism claimed the report exposed the BBC's ideological bias.

"Despite its persistent claims of impartiality and stubbornness in the face of complaints, the BBC’s ideological bias is now shamefully clear. This report vindicates with empirical data what we have said — and the Jewish community has known — for a long time," the group said.

"Our polling shows that an overwhelming majority of British Jews — 86% — consider that anti-Israel bias in our media fuels antisemitism. The BBC should apologize for its biased and inflammatory reporting, but since the BBC has so stubbornly closed ranks and denied that there is a problem over the decades, the fundamental reform that is plainly necessary must come from outside. The answer to this report must begin with a transparent and unconstrained independent inquiry," the post continued.

The BBC has been criticized for refusing to label Hamas a terrorist group in the October 7 aftermath. In a previous statement to Fox News Digital, the BBC said they use the terrorist label when it's attributed to others, such as the UK Government.