In May 2023 the BBC News website managed to produce an article about a report put out by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) within hours of its release:
BBC JERUSALEM BUREAU DOES CHURNALISM FOR CPJ REPORT
Throughout the war that began over nineteen months ago as a result of Hamas’ invasion of Israel, massacre of 1,200 citizens and abduction of 251 hostages, the BBC has regularly quoted and interviewed representatives of the CPJ on multiple platforms.
In March 2024 the BBC’s CEO of News and Current Affairs signed an open letter organised by the CPJ which opened with the following words:
“We, the undersigned, stand united with Palestinian journalists in their call for safety, protection, and the freedom to report.”
On May 15th 2025 the CPJ published an article titled “Gaza journalists speak out about Hamas intimidation, threats, assaults”. Remarkably, the BBC has shown no interest in covering that story to date.
The CPJ’s article focuses on Hamas’ intimidation of journalists trying to report on protests in the Gaza Strip.
“Another journalist told The Washington Post they feared covering highly unusual demonstrations in March 2025 would lead Hamas to accuse them of spying for Israel. A third said Hamas’ internal security agents sometimes followed journalists as they reported. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity.”
The CPJ’s article links to a tepid item of BBC coverage of the protests which failed to make any mention of intimidation of journalists trying to report them. A better BBC report published a month later likewise failed to mention the issues facing local journalists.
Notably, while the CPJ’s article mentions the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate (PJS), readers are told nothing of that union’s own problematic record.
“Abu Jarad reported Hamas’ threat against himself and his wife to the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate (PJS), the official union for Palestinian journalists, and PJS publicly condemned Hamas for violating press freedom.
Prior to this, PJS had only published one other incident involving Hamas during the war — the brutal assault of Ibrahim Muhareb, who was beaten unconscious by armed men in plainclothes who said they were from the police investigations department. He sustained deep head wounds. […]
Meanwhile, press freedom violations by Hamas during the war have been vastly underreported.
PJS often documents Hamas attacks on the media internally, without publicizing them, for fear of reprisals, the group told CPJ. In other cases, PJS staff hear about events second hand as journalists are too scared to report them.
CPJ’s experience echoes that of PJS.”
Given that the BBC has for the past nineteen months relied on mostly unidentified local journalists in the Gaza Strip for its news production, one part of the CPJ’s article is particularly notable:
“PJS’ deputy head Tahseen al-Astal told CPJ that Palestinian journalists are reluctant to spotlight their own problems, driven by a collective desire not to “pivot eyes from the war in Gaza,” which they felt was a more pressing story.
“Most journalists have begun to practice self-censorship in their writing to avoid any problems with security,” he added.”
In other words, the PJS states that local journalists are producing stories which will not annoy Hamas and which will not distract audiences from the Hamas approved narrative of the war. That statement will come as no surprise to anyone who has been following the BBC’s coverage of events in the Gaza Strip for the past nineteen months.
The CPJ’s article also includes a statement from a Hamas official who was quoted by the BBC just last week:
“In response to CPJ inquiries, Ismail Al-Thawabta, Director General of the Government Media Office in Gaza, said the government had received no media complaints regarding “threats related to covering protests or public gatherings,” threats from security personnel, or summonses from internal security agents.
Al-Thawabta said the government had “fully opened the field” for media to cover events freely in a “safe, transparent” environment and it was committed to “ensuring that security agencies do not interfere with the content of media coverage or the work of journalists.””
While the BBC displays considerable interest in the topics of the safety of journalists and press freedom when it is possible to insert Israel into the story, not for the first time we see that its curiosity wanes when Hamas or the Palestinian Authority are involved.
The BBC’s current model of basing its supposedly accurate and impartial reporting from the Gaza Strip on material provided by local journalists who do not enjoy “safety, protection, and the freedom to report” is clearly untenable.
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Al Jazeera local correspondents in Gaza most reluctantly ever mention Hamas/PIJ. It cannot be a coincidence