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Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

theguardian.com

291–300 of 434 posts

Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#291
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Instead, the report says, the BBC’s coverage has involved the systematic dehumanisation of Palestinians and unquestioning acceptance of Israeli PR. This has allegedly been overseen by BBC Middle East Editor and apparent Binyamin Netanyahu admirer, Raffi Berg, who is accused by anonymous journalists of “micromanaging” the section." - https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/bbc-impartiality-trust-isra... "Comprehensive new r…

> https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/bbc-impartiality-trust-isra ... The tagline is "As many question BBC’s coverage, three academics tell openDemocracy why they don't think the broadcaster is impartial", which I think sums up the article accurately. That doesn't seem to add much aside from proving that there are outsiders (impartial or biased, we don't really know) that agree with one side. It shouldn't be surprising…

> However, 1 death = 1 coverage is clearly not how anyone expect the media should operate.

How often should the media report deaths? Each time a group of people die? Each time bodies are found?

> How many people die in civil wars in Sudan or Congo, compared to how much coverage are they getting? Does that mean the BBC has a anti-Sudan bias?

Are you familiar with the saying, “when a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, then does it make a sound”?

> Moreover should each death really merit equal coverage?

I would assume that an individual or a group of people that aspire towards neutrality, fairness, and humanitarian principles would treat one life as the same as another.

For reference, here is the BBC mission and excerpts from its charter available at https://www.bbc.com/aboutthebbc/governance/mission .

>> Our mission is "to act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain".

>> The Charter also sets out our five public purposes:

>> 1. To provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them

>> The BBC should provide duly accurate and impartial news, current affairs and factual programming to build people’s understanding of all parts of the United Kingdom and of the wider world. Its content should be provided to the highest editorial standards. It should offer a range and depth of analysis and content not widely available from other United Kingdom news providers, using the highest calibre presenters and journalists, and championing freedom of expression, so that all audiences can engage fully with major local, regional, national, United Kingdom and global issues and participate in the democratic process, at all levels, as active and informed citizens.

>> 2. To support learning for people of all ages

>> The BBC should help everyone learn about different subjects in ways they will find accessible, engaging, inspiring and challenging. The BBC should provide specialist educational content to help support learning for children and teenagers across the United Kingdom. It should encourage people to explore new subjects and participate in new activities through partnerships with educational, sporting and cultural institutions.

>> 3. To show the most creative, highest quality and distinctive output and services

>> The BBC should provide high-quality output in many different genres and across a range of services and platforms which sets the standard in the United Kingdom and internationally. Its services should be distinctive from those provided elsewhere and should take creative risks, even if not all succeed, in order to develop fresh approaches and innovative content.

>> 4. To reflect, represent and serve the diverse communities of all of the United Kingdom’s nations and regions and, in doing so, support the creative economy across the United Kingdom

>> The BBC should reflect the diversity of the United Kingdom both in its output and services. In doing so, the BBC should accurately and authentically represent and portray the lives of the people of the United Kingdom today, and raise awareness of the different cultures and alternative viewpoints that make up its society. It should ensure that it provides output and services that meet the needs of the United Kingdom’s nations, regions and communities. The BBC should bring people together for shared experiences and help contribute to the social cohesion and wellbeing of the United Kingdom. In commissioning and delivering output the BBC should invest in the creative economies of each of the nations and contribute to their development.

>> 5. To reflect the United Kingdom, its culture and values to the world

>> The BBC should provide high-quality news coverage to international audiences, firmly based on British values of accuracy, impartiality, and fairness. Its international services should put the United Kingdom in a world context, aiding understanding of the United Kingdom as a whole, including its nations and regions where appropriate. It should ensure that it produces output and services which will be enjoyed by people in the United Kingdom and globally.

> Would it be biased if BBC ran more pieces about the sad plight of Ukrainian soldiers compared to Russian soldiers?

Yes, it would be biased in the same way that the BBC runs more pieces about Ukrainian civilians than it does about Palestinian civilians. There are likely more published BBC articles about Ukrainian civilians with photographs, audio, video, and documents than there are about Palestinian civilians.

There is BBC staff reporting from Ukraine and/or with the help of Ukrainian media affiliates and Ukrainian sources.

Where are the BBC reporters in Gaza?

Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#292
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Instead, the report says, the BBC’s coverage has involved the systematic dehumanisation of Palestinians and unquestioning acceptance of Israeli PR. This has allegedly been overseen by BBC Middle East Editor and apparent Binyamin Netanyahu admirer, Raffi Berg, who is accused by anonymous journalists of “micromanaging” the section." - https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/bbc-impartiality-trust-isra... "Comprehensive new r…

> https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/bbc-impartiality-trust-isra ... The tagline is "As many question BBC’s coverage, three academics tell openDemocracy why they don't think the broadcaster is impartial", which I think sums up the article accurately. That doesn't seem to add much aside from proving that there are outsiders (impartial or biased, we don't really know) that agree with one side. It shouldn't be surprising…

> However, 1 death = 1 coverage is clearly not how anyone expect the media should operate.

In armed conflict far away from the country in question, comparatively for each side, yes, both sides' deaths getting similar coverage is how one should expect the media to operate.

If Chile and Peru get into a war tomorrow, the expectation would absolutely be that coverage of deaths by the BBC would be similar for both.

>How many people die in civil wars in Sudan or Congo, compared to how much coverage are they getting?

The obvious key difference here is that in those wars both sides of those conflicts do still tend to get similar coverage per death; which is almost none. At the very least there's not orders of magnitudes difference. Not sure how you missed this, but it doesn't inspire much confidence.

> Would it be biased if BBC ran more pieces about the sad plight of Ukrainian soldiers compared to Russian soldiers?

No, as Russia is a reasonable threat to the UK whereas Hamas is clearly not.

Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#293
post #68

The world has been a sad state of affairs since Covid. People in power need more power for themselves, view the world as a zero sum game, use coercion, deceiving, propaganda to achieve their goals, in this case a territorial expansion. Anyone who opposes the means it's currently being carried out is a anti-.... whatever.

Imo the world was the same before in terms of corruption and propaganda, it’s mostly us, the common folks, who changed radically.

There are only binary states and opinions, either you’re a genocide supporter or an antisemite. Internet discussion on politics have gotten too toxic. Covid brought everyone online and we’ve been stuck in echochambers ever since.

Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#294

Offending or over-accusing sides of this conflict is a very asymmetric risk. Misrepresent Palestinians negatively and you may eventually get an angry, vague letter - with a quarter of signatories doing so anonymously. Misrepresent Israelis negatively and you get very powerful and well-organised protests. BBC is sadly doing the rational thing of staying clear of suggesting Israel may be doing some bad things. It is a…

> So why are we surprised the BBC doesn't want to stick its head above the parapet?

Well, I'm not surprised by that as I've seen the way that the BBC approaches "impartiality" (e.g. have experts explaining one side of an issue and then allow non-experts to spout falsehoods which aren't challenged despite them being demonstrably false).

As a license-fee payer, I detest the way that the BBC is ignoring its journalistic duty to present the facts in a non-partisan manner or at least attempt to do so. However, they consistently use different language to report on the different sides of the war.

Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#295
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Instead, the report says, the BBC’s coverage has involved the systematic dehumanisation of Palestinians and unquestioning acceptance of Israeli PR. This has allegedly been overseen by BBC Middle East Editor and apparent Binyamin Netanyahu admirer, Raffi Berg, who is accused by anonymous journalists of “micromanaging” the section." - https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/bbc-impartiality-trust-isra... "Comprehensive new r…

> https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/bbc-impartiality-trust-isra ... The tagline is "As many question BBC’s coverage, three academics tell openDemocracy why they don't think the broadcaster is impartial", which I think sums up the article accurately. That doesn't seem to add much aside from proving that there are outsiders (impartial or biased, we don't really know) that agree with one side. It shouldn't be surprising…

[deleted]

Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#296

Offending or over-accusing sides of this conflict is a very asymmetric risk. Misrepresent Palestinians negatively and you may eventually get an angry, vague letter - with a quarter of signatories doing so anonymously. Misrepresent Israelis negatively and you get very powerful and well-organised protests. BBC is sadly doing the rational thing of staying clear of suggesting Israel may be doing some bad things. It is a…

I think what is upsetting is that BBC is public service broadcaster where the whole point is that they are financially independent of government so they can do whatever journalism their employees deem necessary. They should be insulated from political pressure as much as possible.

Self censoring their own documentary does not align with that.

Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#297

This is a non exhaustive list of news where the BBC started by blaming Israel of some war crime since the October 7th massacre occurred, and then had to remove, recant or apologize about after overwhelming evidence against it came to light: - Al-Ahli hospital explosion (Oct 2023) - Al-Shifa hospital “medical teams targeted” (Nov 2023) - Summary executions claim (Dec 24) - Aid‑centre shooting attribution (Jun 2025) -…

>after overwhelming evidence against it came to light

Or maybe they removed articles because of political pressure? Post overwhelming evidence against the fact that the Al-Ahli hospital explosion was caused by an Israel airstrike, for example.

Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#299

Offending or over-accusing sides of this conflict is a very asymmetric risk. Misrepresent Palestinians negatively and you may eventually get an angry, vague letter - with a quarter of signatories doing so anonymously. Misrepresent Israelis negatively and you get very powerful and well-organised protests. BBC is sadly doing the rational thing of staying clear of suggesting Israel may be doing some bad things. It is a…

I think what is upsetting is that BBC is public service broadcaster where the whole point is that they are financially independent of government so they can do whatever journalism their employees deem necessary. They should be insulated from political pressure as much as possible. Self censoring their own documentary does not align with that.

> the whole point is that they are financially independent of government

Hasn't been the case for a long time though, eg. [0]

[0] https://www.mediareform.org.uk/blog/the-bbc-mid-term-charter...

Re: Open letter accuses BBC board member of having a conflict of interest on Gaza

#300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's mostly anout how Israel army controls the way journalists report the war or regime in west bank that walks, quacks, and swims like an apartheid but apparently they can't call it that. Sadly no one will be able to document the carnage in gaza. They plan to create an internment camp in the south and move civilians into at after making sure they are not linked to Hamas. Then they are going to basically follow Trump…

As much as there are barriers to reporters here, it seems less than most other conflicts. Its not like journalists have unrestricted access to the Ukraine/Russia front line. Access to other conflicts like Sudan or Myanmar are also very restricted in practise.

That doesn't appear to be correct. How have you reached that conclusion?

Israel has not granted access to journalists to report independently since October 2023.

There has been very limited escorted trips with external journalists but all tightly supervised by the IDF.

Journalists already in Gaza have been killed regularly and there are credible accusations that many are deliberately targeted by the IDF.

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