Readers may recall that in early January, the BBC News website published a report by Shaimaa Khalil about the deaths of two Al Jazeera employees in the southern Gaza Strip:
MORE BBC AMPLIFICATION OF AL JAZEERA’S ‘TARGETING JOURNALISTS’ FALSEHOOD
Three days later, the IDF put out a statement concerning the links of the two men to terrorist organisations. The BBC News website then published another report in which it amplified statements from their families and employer denying the findings:
BBC NEWS STICKS TO THE NARRATIVE AFTER ‘JOURNALISTS’ EXPOSED
On February 26th the ITIC published a report on the topic of journalists killed in the Gaza Strip during the current war.
“The government media office of Hamas in the Gaza Strip reported that as of February 18, 2024, 131 Palestinian journalists had been killed in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war (October 7, 2023). The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center’s comprehensive examination of the 131 names revealed that approximately 60% were operatives in or affiliated with the terrorist organizations, Fatah or the Palestinian Authority.”
Included in the ITIC’s list of journalists affiliated with terrorist organisations are the two Al Jazeera employees who were the topic of the above two BBC reports.
Another name appearing in the ITIC’s report was mentioned in an October 31st article by Fergal Keane headlined ‘Reporting on Gaza: ‘Sometimes from behind the camera I just stand and cry’’. As previously noted here:
“The report continues with a tribute from a friend of a “smiling” photographer called Ibrahim Lafi. Keane’s reporting does not inform readers that Lafi was killed on October 7th at the Erez Crossing as Hamas terrorists stormed the border with Israel.”
The ITIC’s report states:
“Of the 78 journalists identified as having organizational affiliation, 44 were identified with Hamas, five were identified as the operatives of the military wing and the rest were employed by or represented Hamas media. Nineteen were affiliated with PIJ, six of them actual PIJ terrorist operatives. One was an al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades operative and another a Popular Resistance Committees operative. Two were affiliated with the Fronts, one with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the other the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Seven journalists were affiliated with the Palestinian Authority (PA), four with identified with Fatah, one with Muhammad Dahlan’s faction. As of the publication of this study, no organizational affiliation was found for 53 of the journalists on the list. Also included were journalists whose media outlets could not be located and it is not clear why they were classified as journalists.”
The ITIC also notes that:
“Hamas alleges that Israel deliberately attacks journalists to “hide the truth” and prevent the disclosure of events in the Gaza Strip during the war. […]
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also strongly condemned the [alleged] attacks on journalists and members of the media. In a previous announcement, it claimed the [alleged] attacks on journalists were intended to hide from the world the “crimes” committed by the IDF forces and to murder eyewitnesses who document the “Palestinian genocide” in Gaza.”
As we have previously observed in relation to BBC coverage of the topic, the safety of journalists while doing their job is of course an important issue. So too is the abuse of journalism and journalists by terrorist organisations and repressive regimes.
The blurred lines between journalism and terrorism in the Gaza Strip have long been on record but the BBC nevertheless has to date shown no interest in denouncing the exploitation of journalism by cynical terrorist organisations or in drawing a line between legitimate media organisations and those promoting the interests of terrorist organisations or terror funding regimes.
Instead, the BBC chooses to jump on the propaganda bandwagon promoted by the likes of Al Jazeera, Hamas and the PIJ and to mainstream the lie that Israel targets journalists.
Related Articles:
BBC NEWS WEBSITE REPORTING ON THE DEATHS OF JOURNALISTS
Iran or Qatar, who knows but the BBC refuse to divulge their lucrative donations from foreign countries via BBC World. Hence the BBC strong affiliation and Islamist bias. It is high time they were forced to divulge their sources of both finance and information. #defundthebbc
The BBC is “bent” also from within.
In other news IDF captures dozens of Hamas terrorists hiding in a school in Khan Yunis.
In a school? I’m sure they were just brushing up on their geometry …
The BBC is a corrupt organisation- it is beyond the law and assumes it is the law over riding all accepted normal accepted standards.
As such it uses known terrorist affiliates on its staff as does Aljazeera, reporting from both Gaza, PA and Israel.
The Israeli Government GPO issues these organisations with Press Passes in the full knowledge they will report anti Israel rhetoric !