With regard to BBC coverage of Israel’s operations in Lebanon, we previously noted on these pages that:
“On the evening of October 12th – twelve days into the ground operations – the BBC News website published a report by Lucy Williamson titled “Inside Israel’s combat zone in southern Lebanon”. That article includes the first proper account presented to BBC News website audiences concerning Hizballah assets that the IDF has discovered in southern Lebanon. […]
The article also includes a three-and-a-half-minute long filmed report about Williamson’s visit to southern Lebanon in which viewers see around 21 seconds of footage of weapons and military equipment found in that particular village.”
Two days after the appearance of Williamson’s article, the Lebanese newspaper L’Orient Today reported that her visit to southern Lebanon with the IDF had not gone down well in some quarters.
“Hezbollah strongly condemned what it describes as dangerous behavior by several Western media outlets, following a promotional tour organized by the Israeli army for journalists.
In a statement released on Monday, the group had initially reacted to a BBC report by Jerusalem correspondent Lucy Williamson, who crossed into southern Lebanon as part of the convoy arranged for journalists by the Israeli military. […]
“The BBC, with all its platforms and in different languages, did not just blindly side with the murderers and criminals and justify the Zionist barbarism against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples, but brazenly sent a team that entered a southern village accompanied by the occupation army and violated the sanctity of Lebanese territory, sovereignty, and applicable Lebanese laws, as shown by the reports published by this institution,” Hezbollah said in a statement Monday. […]
Hezbollah’s Media Relations condemned “this unjustified and absolutely unacceptable move and demands the Ministry of Information, the National Media Council, and the relevant judicial and security agencies take the necessary legal measures against the BBC and its teams in Lebanon and protest to the BBC Company and the legal bodies representing it. It also demands that the unions of journalists, editors, and free media outlets in the world condemn this step,” Hezbollah concluded.”
The same report also tells readers that:
“Six employees of BBC Arabic in Beirut announced their resignation today, Monday, in protest against a report published by BBC English about the fighting in southern Lebanon after the team visited Lebanese areas accompanied by the Israeli army.
The seven employees are Sana Khoury, Mohamed Hamdar, Marie-Josée Qazzi and Joey Sleem, along with three others from the BBC Extra team. They stated that “they will not return to work unless the institution issues an apology for the report or holds accountable the team that accompanied the Israeli army.””
The claim of resignations would appear to be exaggerated given that the BBC Arabic website has since published content produced by Sana Khoury (also Sanaa al-Khoury), who was one of several employees investigated by the BBC after having posted or shared problematic content immediately following Hamas’ October 7th 2023 attack on Israel.
Relatedly or not, al-Khoury recently reposted the following on her Linkedin page:
Nevertheless, it is notable that members of the BBC Beirut bureau staff chose to publicly react to Lucy Williamson’s reporting from southern Lebanon in the same manner as the terrorist organisation Hizballah.
Whether or not that was out of identification with that proscribed organisation or because of fears for their own safety is unclear – not least because a reported statement from the BBC on the matter reads “We do not comment on individual staffing matters. Our staff in Lebanon continue to report for the BBC despite the ongoing conflict in the region.”.
Interestingly, the BBC News website published a report by Quentin Sommerville on November 5th in which he states that: [emphasis added]
“The BBC spent two weeks with Civil Defense Force crews in the Bekaa Valley, which stretches eastwards to the border with Syria. Permission from Hezbollah was required to visit the scene of Israeli attacks.”
That would mean that roughly a week after the condemnations from Hizballah and some BBC staff regarding Lucy Williamson’s visit to southern Lebanon with the IDF, Somerville went off on a two week trip that entailed Hizballah permission – apparently with no objections from journalists at the BBC Beirut office.
Moreover, listeners to the November 29th edition of the BBC Radio 4 programme ‘Today’ heard a short report from Beirut-based Hugo Bachega [from 39:48 here] about the situation in Tyre following the ceasefire two days earlier which included the following: [emphasis added]
Bachega: “We spent a day here yesterday. Tyre is the largest city in the south. It was heavily bombarded by the Israeli military in this conflict. And we were taken on a tour by Hizballah to see some of the destruction, which I think shows you that they’re still very much in control here.”
Once again, that “tour” (also mentioned in Bachega’s written report from Tyre) organised by a proscribed terrorist organisation apparently did not spark any condemnation from Bachega’s colleagues at the BBC Beirut bureau.
So what do we have here? Firstly we learn that despite the BBC having repeatedly complained over the past fourteen months that it does not have access to the Gaza Strip, some of the corporation’s staff think that their colleagues should be held “accountable” for taking the opportunity to report from another zone of combat.
Secondly, we see that some of the journalists tasked with providing BBC audiences with accurate and impartial news reporting are of the opinion that although reporting produced while embedded with Israeli forces necessitates an “apology”, reporting produced under the auspices of a proscribed terrorist organisation is perfectly acceptable.
Finally, we see that although claims of a strike by journalists at the BBC’s Beirut bureau was reported by several media outlets, the publicly funded corporation chose to try to ignore a story about staff members making complaints that echo those voiced by Hizballah.
And yet, the BBC would apparently still have members of the public believe that it provides accurate, impartial, independent and fair “news you can trust”, even as it continues to send journalists on tours organised or approved by a terrorist organisation proscribed by the UK.
Related Articles:
BBC NEWS WEBSITE DOCUMENTATION OF WEAPONS IN SOUTHERN LEBANON
LOOKING AT BBC CLAIMS OF ‘CONSTRAINTS’ ON REPORTING
BBC JOURNALIST WHO COMPLAINED ABOUT ‘ISRAELI PROPAGANDA’ PROMOTES HIZBALLAH MESSAGING
