In the early hours of June 17th the BBC News website published a report by David Gritten headlined “Israel bombs Iran state TV during live broadcast” which opens as follows: [emphasis added]
“Israeli aircraft have struck the headquarters of Iran’s state broadcaster in Tehran, after the Israeli military told residents of the area of the capital where it is located to evacuate.
A live broadcast on Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting’s TV channel was briefly interrupted after blasts were heard and the studio lights went out. Iranian media reported that at least one staff member was killed.
The Israeli military said it targeted a “communications centre of the Iranian regime”. Iran’s foreign ministry said the strike was a “war crime“.”
Readers are later told that:
“On Monday afternoon, the Israeli military’s Persian-language spokesperson called on residents of western Tehran’s District 3 to evacuate immediately, saying it planned to target military infrastructure and that their lives were at risk.
Hours later, the Israeli strike on the building housing Iran’s state broadcaster was broadcast live on its TV network, IRINN. […]
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmail Baqai, condemned the strike, saying it was a “wicked act” and a “war crime“.”
Despite twice promoting the Iranian regime’s “war crime” propaganda even though he clearly knew that a warning had been given, Gritten made no effort to explain to readers that media facilities used for military purposes become a military objective before he went on to quote the IDF spokesman:
“The Israeli military’s spokesman, Brig Gen Effie Defrin, said it targeted “a communications centre of the Iranian regime, which served Iran’s armed forces”.
“According to our intelligence, the centre was used by military forces to advance operational activity under the cover of civilian assets and infrastructure,” he alleged.”
Notably, Gritten also had nothing to tell BBC audiences about the record of “Iran’s state broadcaster”. As stated in the BBC’s own “Iran media guide”: “[a]ll broadcasting is controlled by the state and propagates state policy and ideology.”.
The introduction to a 2020 report from the International Federation for Human Rights notes the involvement of branches of “Iran’s state broadcaster” in the airing of forced confessions from political opponents:
“The report documents how Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), which holds a monopoly over TV and radio broadcasts, has been actively involved in the systematic production and broadcast of forced confessions, the theft of private data, and the publication of defamatory content. The report concludes that IRIB, in collaboration with the security apparatus of the Ministry of Intelligence and the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has become a means of mass suppression.”
Such context – along with the fact that and the IRIB as a whole was first designated by the US in 2013 and another IRIB outlet has been sanctioned by several Western countries and the EU – would clearly have been helpful to BBC audiences around the world trying to understand the background to this story.
Uncritical quotations of statements put out by the Iranian regime are also found in Gritten’s portrayal of another incident reported on June 16th:
“Iran’s foreign ministry also accused the Israeli military of targeting a hospital during a series of air strikes in the western city of Kermanshah on Monday.
State media reported that parts of the Farabi hospital were damaged by Israeli projectiles and that several patients were injured as a result.
Kurdish human rights group Hengaw said it had received credible information that the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) had converted buildings near the hospital into “storage sites for military projectiles” and accused the force of using civilians as “human shields”.”
The full statement from the Norway-based Hengaw Organisation for Human Rights reads as follows:
“Hengaw has received credible information that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has converted buildings near Farabi Hospital in Kermanshah (Kermashan) into storage sites for military projectiles. By turning this civilian area into a military target, the IRGC is using the risk of retaliatory strikes by Israeli forces as a tool for media propaganda.
Earlier today, in addition to the vicinity of Farabi Hospital, at least seven locations used to store military projectiles in the Dieselabad and Dowlatabad districts of Kermanshah—areas from which missiles were launched the previous night—were targeted by Israeli airstrikes.
Hengaw once again warns against the IRGC’s systematic use of civilians as “human shields” in Kermanshah. We condemns this practice as a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and a clear example of a war crime.”
Items concerning the same incident also appeared on the BBC News website’s live page:
Clearly the BBC’s promotion of unverified claims made by representatives of the Iranian regime, its state-controlled media and media outlets run by the IRGC is not conducive to full audience understanding of events. However, as has been the case in BBC reporting on incidents in the Gaza Strip throughout the past 20 months, we see that the corporation uses the same method of ‘explaining’ its parroting of claims from sources serving oppressive regimes responsible for the current conflicts with the excuse that it cannot report “due to restrictions”.
Only an Islamist or radical leftist would not laugh uproariously at the viral video of this finger-wagging burka-berobed announcer as she throws ups her hands and rushes for the exit when the bomb hits and the dust flies. Also see the viral Israeli parody.