Readers may recall that over a period of twelve days in March, the BBC News website promoted a report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) in at least thirteen items of content:
AN OVERVIEW OF BBC NEWS WEBSITE PROMOTION OF AN IPC REPORT
As we noted at the time, BBC audiences were not informed of COGAT’s response to that report, which included the statement that “the report contains multiple factual and methodological flaws, some of them serious.”. COGAT has since provided further details which have also not been reported by the BBC.
In May Israel’s Ministry of Health published a review of the IPC report from March which includes the following:
“On page 4, the [IPC] report claims that “in January 2024, only nine humanitarian missions to the northern governorates were facilitated, dropping to six missions in February.” The OCHA report which is the source of this information states that it pertains only to missions by “the UN and its humanitarian partners”, while more than half of the aid shipments to northern Gaza since the beginning of 2024 were conducted by private sector actors, which are not counted by OCHA.”
In early June media outlets including the Times of Israel and the Wall Street Journal reported on a study carried out by a group of Israeli academics and public health professionals.
“The study analyzed airdrops and food shipments delivered by land from January through April 2024, based on shipping details provided by international donors and recorded by Cogat, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. These records list the shipment date, consignee, weight and contents of trucks entering Gaza and include aid delivered from multiple sources such as national and private donations. Unrwa lists only U.N. aid through Kerem Shalom and Rafah, the latter now closed by Egypt, ignoring other crossings. In May, Cogat lists 6,335 trucks, OCHA counts 2,797 and Unrwa 1,656. Adding private-sector trucks to the OCHA figure brings the total above 6,000, close to Cogat’s count.
The study revealed that the supply provided an average of 3,374 calories per person daily, well above the 2,100 recommended by the Sphere humanitarian movement as the minimum standard. It also confirms the daily availability of 101 grams of protein and 80.6 grams of fat per person, in compliance with the standards.”
Neither of those reports received coverage on the BBC News website.
In early June the IPC published a report titled “Famine Review Committee: Review of the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) IPC-Compatible Analysis for the Northern Governorates of the Gaza Strip”.
As noted by commentators, that report concludes that the FEWS NET analysis published in March is not plausible and points out the omission of certain categories of food deliveries.
“The FEWS NET food availability analysis excludes the contribution of commercial and/or privately contracted deliveries, potentially between 1,820 with metric tons (MT) of food (low estimate) and 3,850 MT of food (high estimate) in the month of March and about 2,405 MT of food (low estimate) and 4,004 MT of food (high estimate) in the month of April 2024. While the intervals are extremely wide, indicative of a high level of uncertainty, this corresponds to the potential exclusion of about 25-76% coverage of the daily kilocalorie requirement in March and 34- 82% in April. Even a conservative approach towards the commercial and/or privately contracted food deliveries to northern Gaza, which the FRC considers possible, would still indicate a contribution of 25% and 34% coverage of the daily kilocalorie requirement in March and April, respectively.
FEWS NET food availability analysis excludes the contribution of WFP deliveries to bakeries in northern Gaza, including a reported 940 MT of flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in April. While the intervals are extremely wide, indicative of a high level of uncertainty, this corresponds to the potential exclusion of about 4% to 15% coverage of the daily kilocalorie requirement. […]
…the exclusion of all commercial and/or privately contracted deliveries and WFP deliveries of flour, sugar, yeast, and salt to bakeries, translates to the exclusion of food equal to as much as 38% to 49% coverage of the daily kilocalorie requirement in April. While FEWS NET estimated the caloric availability in the area as covering only 59- 63% of the needs (based uniquely on Humanitarian Food Assistance) in April, the review done by the FRC estimates that this range would be 75% to 109% if commercial and/or privately contracted food deliveries were included (157% if a higher estimate was used).”
Although that report has also not been given any BBC News website coverage, in recent days the BBC has continued to promote the narrative of “famine-like conditions”, quoting a speech made at a media briefing in which no evidence for that claim was provided:
“His remarks came after World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday that a significant proportion of Gaza’s population were facing “catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions”.” [BBC News website source]
“On Wednesday, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a significant proportion of Gaza’s population was facing “catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions”.
The number of aid trucks entering Gaza continues to be well below what agencies have said is required.” [BBC News website source]
“On Wednesday, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a significant proportion of Gaza’s population was facing “catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions”.” [BBC News website source]
“The UN’s health agency says a significant proportion of Gaza’s population is facing catastrophic hunger and famine-like conditions. After eight months of war, thousands of children have been diagnosed with severe malnutrition.” [BBC News channel source]
The fact that the BBC did not cover the topic of the IPC’s latest report means that audiences will not understand the reasons for the WHO’s terminological shift to “famine-like conditions”.
The BBC’s record of reporting on this topic clearly shows that it is not committed to providing audiences with “a range and depth of analysis and content” as required under the terms of its public purposes, instead preferring to amply narratives promoted by UN agencies, despite their use of problematic methodologies.
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The only famine in Gaza is the famine of truthful facts and figures. #defundthebbc