BBC Arabic forced to correct its output 80 times in five months of war

Patrick Sawer

Sat, May 4, 2024 at 12:00 PM EDT·4 min read

The BBC was forced to correct its Arabic channel’s coverage of the Gaza conflict every other day on average during the first five months of the war.

BBC Arabic, whose output Tim Davie, the corporation’s director general, has described as “something we should be very proud of”, made 80 corrections in the five months after the Oct 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

The corrections followed a string of complaints about the channel’s news coverage of the conflict by the Campaign for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (Camera), which lobbies for “accurate and balanced” coverage of Israel.

Of the 80 corrections made, 34 concerned BBC Arabic referring to Jewish communities inside Israel’s internationally recognized territory as “settlements”, which happened 30 times, and to their residents as “settlers” – four times.

Camera said it flagged this issue as early as the afternoon of Oct 7, but that BBC Arabic continued using the term “settlers” and “settlements” widely for the following five months, including in reference to Metula, which was established in 1896, with some of its first Jewish families having lived in the area for centuries.

BBC Arabic also corrected its description of Hamas and Hezbollah – both of which are proscribed terrorist groups under UK law – as “the Resistance” on three occasions, and corrected references to attacks which targeted and killed civilians as “resistance operations” on two more occasions.

The broadcaster also corrected one reference to the deaths of members of another UK-proscribed terrorist organisation as “martyrdom”.

Tel Aviv described as Israel’s ‘capital’

Complaints by Camera also forced BBC Arabic to correct its reference to a convicted child murderer as a “detainee/captive” rather than “prisoner” twice and to other convicted individuals in Israeli prison as “detainees/captives” on two more occasions.

It also incorrectly described Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital or seat of government eight times.

A number of BBC Arabic journalists have been criticised for social media posts which appeared to justify or praise the killing of Israeli civilians by Hamas.

After complaints, the BBC launched an investigation into the use of social media by some BBC Arabic staff, with no further disciplinary action taken against them.

Following the investigation Mr Davie told MPs a month ago: “The Arabic service, in terms of its output, we should be very proud of […] the individuals themselves are under enormous pressure […] some of the tweets we have seen are unacceptable […] I think we’re doing the fair thing, we’re acting fairly and judiciously […].

“We do not want to see that, and when we see it, we will take action, and look at the appropriate sanction. That will not always be leaving the BBC, it might be the various ways in which you could take action.”

‘Divorced from reality’

A spokesman for Camera said: “Just over a month ago, director-general Tim Davie said in Parliament that ‘we should be very proud’ of the BBC Arabic’s output, offering ‘enormous pressures’ as relevant context for its staff’s various shortcomings.

“According to the BBC spokespeople’s usual mantra, meanwhile, the service’s journalistic work ‘adheres to the same Editorial Guidelines and standards’ as the rest of the BBC.

“But the sheer amount of corrections to Israel-related reports, with over 30 per cent of post-Oct 7 complaints still pending to this day, although long overdue, shows just how divorced from reality these statements are.

“In fact, the biased output of the Arabic service does not follow the same rulebook as the English one, nor can it be explained away just by ‘pressures’ in the field. Clearly, it is not even remotely something to be proud of.

“This level of detachment on the BBC management’s part, alongside the complaints system’s failure to provide a timely and diligent remedy for the situation, is what brought us months ago to call for a parliamentary inquiry with real investigative powers in an attempt to finally hold BBC Arabic responsible for basic standards of accuracy and impartiality.”

Video removed completely

Following complaints by Camera, the BBC removed a number of items completely from its BBC Arabic online output.

These included a video which questioned whether the Kfar Aza kibbutz massacre on Oct 7, during which at least 52 kibbutzim were killed and more went missing, had actually happened.

It also removed a video report which appeared to uncritically platform the false claim that the killer of a Palestinian-American child was Jewish.

BBC sources defended its Arabic channel as “a vital source of impartial news in a region which is dominated by partisan media”. It also denied that all the corrections were significant errors, saying that corrections can “vary in substance”.

A BBC spokesman said: “BBC News Arabic provides independent news 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to audiences across the Middle East and around the world.

“The service is covering the war accurately, impartially and diligently but when mistakes are made, we rightly acknowledge and correct them, reminding our staff of the high standards audiences know and expect from the BBC.”