BBC Verify produces a third report on damage in Lebanon

On September 27^th BBC Verify put out a report about “missile damage in Lebanon”:

BBC VERIFY AVOIDS THE ‘WHY’ IN REPORT ON DAMAGE IN LEBANON

Two days later, on September 29^th, BBC Verify put out a report about strikes in Beirut:

BBC VERIFY UNDER INFORMS AND EDITORIALISES ON BEIRUT STRIKES

Early on the morning of October 9^th, the BBC News website published another BBC Verify report titled “BBC Verify examines footage revealing scale of damage in Lebanon”, the synopsis to which reads:

“The Israeli military says it is expanding its ground offensive against Hezbollah by moving into a new zone in the south-west.

The incursion will be backed by a fourth division in the coastal sector, bringing the total number of soldiers deployed to fifteen thousand.

On Monday, Israeli forces warned people to avoid the coast, saying it would soon begin an operation from the sea.

BBC Verify’s Nick Eardley has been looking at the damage done in Lebanon so far.”

Eardley – who appears to have made a rapid transformation from political reporter to military correspondent – begins by promoting a false sense of equivalence, telling BBC audiences that: [emphasis in italics in the original, emphasis in bold added]

Eardley: “There’s been considerable rocket fire between Israel and Hizballah in recent days. Dozens of rockets have been fired into northern Israel by Hizballah and there’s been significant damage done by Israeli strikes in Lebanon.”

Contrary to the impression given by Eardley, unlike Hizballah, Israel does not launch rockets at civilian communities in villages, towns and cities: its strikes are limited to military targets. Eardley’s claim that Hizballah fired “dozens” of rockets fails to inform BBC audiences of the scale of that terrorist organisation’s attacks – for example 120 rockets on October 6^th and 190 rockets on October 7^th – and also fails to clarify that its attacks are not limited to “northern Israel”.

However, for the third time in less than two weeks, BBC Verify shows no interest in informing BBC audiences about “damage” in Israel and so Eardley continues:

Eardley: “This footage here is from Yaroun in the south-west of Lebanon. You can see buildings here have been flattened over a large area.”

A more accurate description of the location of Yaroun would be southern Lebanon. While Eardley implies that the “damage done” in that village near the Hizballah stronghold of Bint Jbeil is attributable solely to “Israeli strikes”, he makes no effort to provide the context of recent events in that location. For example, on October 2^nd Hizballah announced that it had detonated an explosive device in Yaroun. On October 5^th Hizballah announced that it had targeted IDF troops in the Yaroun area with a “rocket salvo” and on October 6^th the IDF announced that it had targeted a building in Yaroun in which Hizballah terrorists were operating.

In other words, despite having not verified whether the damage shown in that footage is solely the result of Israeli strikes or also attributable to explosives and rockets fired by Hizballah, BBC Verify presents audiences with only the first option as the explanation for what is shown. The report goes on:

Eardley: “We’ve been mapping the wider picture too. If we focus on the region, this map is based on data from the Institute for the Study of War. It’s up to date as of Monday morning [October 7^th – Ed.], so it doesn’t include the most recent strikes. It does include reported strikes. We haven’t verified them all and there may be some that we don’t know about. But you can see here in purple recent Hizballah attacks on Israel and in red you can see Israeli strikes in Lebanon.”

Viewers are not informed of the start date of that map but seeing as the Institute for the Study of War puts out daily updates, it is possible that it relates to the 24 hours prior to “Monday morning”. Viewers see some six purple dots on the map but are not told of the number of rockets fired during each attack on a specific location. For example, while one of BBC Verify’s purple dots appears to show Kiryat Shmona (the locations are not named), the fact that 30 rockets were launched at that town early on October 6^th is not clear. Eardley continues:

Eardley: “Let’s focus in on a few examples to show the extent of the damage we’ve been seeing in Lebanon. Firstly, this one from Arab Salim in southern Lebanon, 16 kms from the border with Israel. We’ve verified this footage by looking at the surrounding area. It matches satellite images from before this raid and buildings still standing in this footage. And we’re confident the footage is from Tuesday morning [October 8^th – Ed.] when it was first posted online. What it clearly shows is a considerable level of damage.”

While BBC Verify is obviously quite happy to promote images of “damage”, it offers no context – including the fact that Arab Salim is known to be the location of a Hizballah military site. Eardly goes on:

Eardley: “Let me also show you this footage from Beirut. Israel says it’s targeting Hizballah strongholds, particularly in areas where weapons are being stored. And this footage does appear to show secondary explosions. You can see here there’s already damage done – the building is on fire. In about 40 seconds into the footage which has been posted online, there’s another explosion. A projectile flies upward from the building and that’s likely caused by ammunition blowing up. There are other examples like this. We’ve shown them to experts who say, again, that this is likely caused by ammunition exploding.”

There are indeed many “other examples like this” but as we see, BBC Verify apparently thought it necessary to qualify the little information it provided on the topic of secondary explosions and did not provide any useful background concerning Hizballah’s policy of storage of weapons in civilian areas and the resulting “damage” and casualties.

Eardley continues:

Eardley: “The damage is against the backdrop of Israel sending more troops into Lebanon. On Tuesday [October 8^th – Ed.] the Israeli Defense Forces confirmed they were expanding their operations into the south-west. And, like what’s happened in Gaza, this is the sort of warning being circulated by the IDF. This one is in Arabic. It tells people in the south to be careful not to move south and it tells many not to return to their homes for their own safety.”

The warning shown on screen was put out by the IDF’s Arabic language spokesman and is one of many regularly issued ahead of operational activities in order to safeguard civilians. Eardley fails to adequately inform BBC audiences of that fact or that the IDF’s ground operations in southern Lebanon aim to destroy Hizballah’s infrastructure in areas near to the border with Israel, including weapons caches and tunnels. He closes the report as follows:

Eardley: “In recent months hundreds of thousands of people in Lebanon have been displaced and much of that has been happening in the south of the country, where we’ve seen a lot of the damage too.”

The BBC’s CEO of News recently described BBC Verify as an antidote to disinformation, stating that:

“The BBC Verify team deploys satellite technology and industry-leading tools and techniques to check and verify user generated video, eyewitness reports and social media accounts to build a picture of what’s happening on the ground.”

As we see once again in this third BBC Verify report in less than two weeks on the topic of “damage” in Lebanon, while verification of open source video is clearly useful, it does not help audiences “build a picture of what’s happening on the ground” if the relevant background and context to the story are ignored and if the reporting focuses attentions exclusively on “the damage done” in just one of the places in which a war is taking place.