In October 2020 the BBC reported that: [emphasis added]
“The BBC has issued new guidance on social media usage, which will force staff to maintain impartiality.
Employees will be told not to “express a personal opinion on matters of public policy, politics, or controversial subjects”.
The announcement follows new director general Tim Davie’s pledge last month to impose new social media rules.”
Despite his having declared the issue of social media use one of his main priorities at the time of his appointment to the role of Director General, that BBC Guidance has not prevented Davie from having to deal with numerous social media related scandals since its introduction.
The current version of the BBC’s Guidance on “Personal Use of Social Media” includes particular instruction for “individuals working in news and current affairs”.
One of those “individuals working in news and current affairs” is the BBC’s Hugo Bachega who since late 2023 has usually been based in its Beirut bureau but conducts occasional visits to Israel. On the evening of August 3rd, Bachega posted the following:
The July 31st New York Times article promoted by Bachega – titled “Anger Over Starvation in Gaza Leaves Israel Increasingly Isolated” – is credited to Steven Erlanger. Most of those reading Bachega’s post will not have a subscription to the NYT and hence will not be able to discover that the highly offensive – and inaccurate – claim he chose to publicly promote comes from one of the people quoted in the article – Daniel Levy.
On the morning of August 5th, Bachega found fit to partly clarify the source of the quote he had promoted on social media:
That “former negotiator” has of course not represented the Israeli government in any negotiations for nearly a quarter of a century. He has, however been active in a variety of NGOs and think tanks of a particular political stripe and makes frequent appearances at assorted media outlets .
As readers may recall, in late October 2024 the BBC had to correct a false claim of ‘plausible genocide’ made by Daniel Levy on its ‘Newsnight’ programme. Levy has continued to promote that false narrative and others, such as ‘ethnic cleansing’, at a variety of outlets, including Qatari funded media.
Nevertheless, a BBC correspondent tasked with providing ‘accurate and impartial’ reporting on the Middle East to the corporation’s audiences found fit to promote an inaccurate and incendiary claim from an obviously politically motivated commentator.
Those familiar with Hugo Bachega’s choices of promotion of content on social media will not however find that expression of “revealed bias” in any way surprising.
Once again the BBC’s Guidance on “Personal Use of Social Media” is shown to be nugatory as far as its declared aim to “force staff to maintain impartiality” is concerned.
True to form Davie does nothing, Samir Hah chairman of governors does nothing and the board of governors do nothing – such rife anti semitism at BBC is now beyond contempt.
One thing that just might wake them up is if BBC was to be banned from Israel like Aljazeera! – Are you listening Netanyahu???????
The BBC has been spouting antisemitism since I lived there fifty years ago. Successive managing directors have consistently failed to address the problem, combined with the influx of non Christian/Jewish employees are all factors that have compounded to normalise antisemitism in the BBC workplace, culminating in the leaked email from management instructing employees how to denigrate Israel at whatever opportunity arises. Never do the BBC ever print anything positive about Israel, despite Israel being one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world. A world leader in medical advances, inventions and the highest number of startup companies in the world. The BBC is a cesspit of anti-Jewish hatred at the very top, a hatred that permeates down through the organisation, the management should be ashamed of themselves. #defundthebbc