Eight BBC journalists have written a letter to Al Jazeera accusing their employer of a “double standard” in its reporting on Israel and Palestine while being “unflinching” in its reporting of alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
According to Al Jazeera, the 2,300-word letter states that BBC “has failed to accurately tell this story – through omission and lack of critical engagement with Israel’s claims – and it has therefore failed to help the public engage with and understand the human rights abuses unfolding in Gaza.”
The eight journalists are based in the United Kingdom but their names have been kept anonymous.
The letter highlights that while the BBC names Israeli victims and interviews affected families, “humanising coverage of Palestinian civilians has been lacking.”
The journalists add that the Palestinians are asked whether they “condemn Hamas” and pro-Israeli guests “are not equally asked to ‘condemn’ the actions of the Israeli government”.
“Thousands of Palestinians have been killed since October 7. When will the number be high enough for our editorial stance to change?” the letter said. “…We are asking the BBC to better reflect and defer to the evidence-based findings of official and unbiased humanitarian organisations.”
It continued: “It is largely in the last few weeks – as civilian deaths have exponentially increased and Western countries’ appetite for Israel’s attacks has waned – that the BBC has made more effort to humanise Palestinian civilians. For many, this feels too little too late, and shows that the positions taken by governments in the UK and US have undue influence on coverage.”
When contacted by Al Jazeera, a BBC spokesperson denied the allegations contained in the letter and said: “When interviewing either the Israeli government, Hamas, Palestinian representatives, or other leaders, we are robust, challenging and aim to hold power to account.”
Read more on the letter: As Israel pounds Gaza, BBC journalists accuse broadcaster of bias
Los Angeles Times
Semafor has reported that The Los Angeles Times is not allowing staff to cover the Gaza issue for at least three months if they signed an open letter condemning Israel’s military operations in the region.
Nearly a dozen staffers at the LA Times signed the open letter earlier this month criticising the Israeli attacks on Gaza, adding the military operations are a threat to journalists and news investigation.
The letter also called on newsrooms to use language including “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing,” and “genocide” when referring to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
The published letter was reportedly signed by over 1,000 current and former journalists, calling for an end to Israeli operations in Gaza which, as it stated, represented a “slaughter of our colleagues and their families by the Israeli military and government.” The letter laid out an estimate of the number of journalists and their families who had been killed in the conflict, saying Israel’s military actions “show wide scale suppression of speech.”
It also criticised mainstream news organisations, deeming them as apprehensive in their coverage of the situation and for being “hesitant to quote genocide experts and accurately describe the existential threat unfolding in Gaza,” adding that newsroom heads often “undermined Palestinian, Arab and Muslim perspectives, dismissing them as unreliable and have invoked inflammatory language that reinforces Islamophobic and racist tropes.”
“We are writing to urge an end to violence against journalists in Gaza and to call on Western newsroom leaders to be clear-eyed in coverage of Israel’s repeated atrocities against Palestinians,” the letter read.
