On the evening of February 28th the BBC News website published a report by Yasmin Rufo and David Gritten headlined “Journalists call for foreign media access to Gaza in open letter” in which readers are told that:
“More than 50 journalists have sent an open letter calling on Israel and Egypt to provide “free and unfettered access to Gaza for all foreign media”.
The letter is signed by correspondents and presenters for broadcasters with UK bases, including the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen, Lyse Doucet and Mishal Husain.
It says the need for comprehensive on-the-ground reporting is “imperative”. […]
The letter calls on Israel’s government to “openly state its permission for international journalists to operate in Gaza”.
It also asks Egyptian authorities to allow foreign press access to the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza.”
In addition to Jeremy Bowen, Lyse Doucet and Mishal Husain, the other thirteen BBC journalists who signed the letter include Orla Guerin, Clive Myrie, Fergal Keane, Quentin Sommerville and Tom Bateman.
The next morning, Jeremy Bowen put out the following Tweet:
That edition of BBC Radio 4’s ‘From Our Own Correspondent’ was aired on February 17th and Bowen’s piece is the lead item (from 00:37 here).
“International media have been campaigning to gain access to Gaza in the months since the Israeli bombardment began – with only occasional access granted, which is closely supervised by the Israeli military. More often, news organisations have relied on Palestinian journalists already living and working in Gaza, who continue to operate under dangerous conditions. Jeremy Bowen reflects on the difficulties of telling the story of the Israel-Gaza war.”
In that long item, Bowen tells listeners that:[emphasis in italics in the original, emphasis in bold added]
Bowen: “Israel and Egypt – the two countries that control the borders – don’t let international journalists into the Gaza Strip. […]
I can only surmise that Israel is not allowing reporters to work freely inside Gaza because their soldiers are doing things they do not want us to see.”
Later in the item, Bowen refers to the case against Israel brought to the ICJ by South Africa, claiming that “the court has ruled that Israel has a plausible case to answer on allegations of genocide”. After that debatable interpretation of the court’s ruling, Bowen goes on to tell BBC audiences that:
Bowen: “…foreign journalists might uncover evidence that backs up those accusations of war crimes as well as the even more serious one of genocide. Till we get in, we’ll never know.”
In other words, Jeremy Bowen – and presumably his co-signatories too – would have the public believe that only reporting on the ground in the Gaza Strip by him and his colleagues can provide an accurate account of what is happening there.
That assertion, however, is not even remotely supported by the records of Bowen and others among the signatories when they have been given free access to report from the Gaza Strip in the past. Here are just a few examples:
In 2012, Bowen (and others) tried to persuade BBC audiences that an Israeli operation against Hamas was in fact part of an election campaign:
EXAMINING THE BBC’S PORTRAYAL OF OPERATION ‘PILLAR OF CLOUD’ AS ISRAELI ELECTIONEERING
During the same operation, BBC journalists vigorously promoted a story concerning the death of the son of a BBC employee which was later shown to be inaccurate. Jeremy Bowen was the corporation’s Middle East editor at the time.
REVISITING A FIVE YEAR-OLD BBC STORY
During the 2014 conflict, Bowen promoted unverified casualty figures and devoted considerable energy to denial of Hamas’ use of civilians as human shields while providing amplification for accusations of ‘war crimes’ and ignoring the issue of shortfall missiles.
BBC CLAIMS THAT ISRAEL TARGETED A CENTRE FOR THE DISABLED IN GAZA SHOWN TO BE INACCURATE
HAMAS PR DEPARTMENT INVOKES BBC’S BOWEN
BBC’S BOWEN SAW NO HUMAN SHIELDS IN GAZA – BUT REPORTS THEM IN MOSUL
IN WHICH THE BBC’S JEREMY BOWEN REPEATS HIS ‘NO HUMAN SHIELDS IN GAZA’ CLAIMS
During the same 2014 conflict, the BBC’s Lyse Doucet produced remarkably little – and distinctly unhelpful – reporting on the topic of Hamas’ tunnel system as well as reporting from locations in Gaza including the Shuja’iya neighbourhood.
BBC FAILS TO ADEQUATELY INFORM AUDIENCES ON TERRORIST TUNNELS (AND WORSE)
TWENTY-THREE SECONDS OF BBC REPORTING ON GAZA TUNNELS
EXAMINING LYSE DOUCET’S CLAIM THAT SHE REPORTED NEW HAMAS TUNNELS ON BBC
BBC’S DOUCET PROMOTES AND AMPLIFIES HAMAS “MASSACRE” PROPAGANDA ON WS RADIO
BBC NEWS PASSES UP ON THE CHANCE TO CORRECT GAZA MISINFORMATION
Orla Guerin’s contributions to BBC coverage of the 2014 conflict included promotion of unverified Hamas-supplied casualty figures and the notion of Israeli ‘occupation’ of the Gaza Strip nine years after disengagement. Like her colleague Jeremy Bowen, Guerin also saw no evidence of Hamas’ use of human shields during her time reporting from the Gaza Strip.
ORLA GUERIN’S PARTING SHOT BREACHES BBC EDITORIAL GUIDELINES
BBC COMPLAINTS: ‘IT WAS HARD FOR JOURNALISTS IN GAZA TO SEE ROCKETS BEING FIRED’
In 2018 Jeremy Bowen misled BBC audiences on the topic of the background to the ‘Great Return March’.
BBC’S MIDDLE EAST EDITOR ‘EXPLAINS’ GAZA VIOLENCE
In 2021 Bowen produced a particularly egregious report about deaths caused by a shortfall missile.
BBC’S JEREMY BOWEN REWRITES THE BEIT HANOUN SHORTFALL ROCKET INCIDENT
In other words, even at times when BBC journalists have had free access to the Gaza Strip during periods of violence and armed conflict, their physical presence on the ground did not guarantee accurate and impartial coverage.
Indeed, the current conflict demonstrates precisely how years of serial BBC avoidance of topics such as the Hamas tunnel network, weapons smuggling, Hamas’ use of human shields and its abuse of civilian facilities such as hospitals, schools, universities and mosques have been profoundly unhelpful to members of the BBC’s funding public who are now trying to understand the background to the events since October 7th.
Anyone who believes a single word uttered by these top antisemites at the BBC needs their bumps feeling. Who knows, perhaps like the Palestinian journalists these BBC journalists are also members of a proscribed terrorist organisation. Last time Bowen was allowed behind battle lines is when Bowen began his one man crusade against Israel. #defundthebbc