As we all too often have cause to note on these pages, the ‘public purposes’ set out in the Royal Charter that is the BBC’s constitutional basis oblige it “To provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them”.
“The BBC should provide duly accurate and impartial news, current affairs and factual programming to build people’s understanding of all parts of the United Kingdom and of the wider world. Its content should be provided to the highest editorial standards. It should offer a range and depth of analysis and content not widely available from other United Kingdom news providers, using the highest calibre presenters and journalists, and championing freedom of expression, so that all audiences can engage fully with major local, regional, national, United Kingdom and global issues and participate in the democratic process, at all levels, as active and informed citizens.”
One example of an issue on which the BBC has serially failed to facilitate audience engagement as “informed citizens” is that of the organisation which was set up just over five years ago under the name ‘Palestine Action’ and was proscribed last month by the UK government.
On August 17th the BBC News website published a report – including in the ‘updates’ section of its ‘Middle East’ page – headlined “Novelist Sally Rooney says she will support Palestine Action despite ban”.
Writer Guy Lambert has this to tell BBC audiences about the organisation named in that headline:
“Palestine Action is a British pro-Palestinian direct action group that was proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the government in July.
Their activities have predominantly targeted arms companies since the start of the current war in Gaza.”
Palestine Action’s “activities” in fact began over three years before “the start of the current war in Gaza” but Lambert has nothing to tell BBC audiences about that.
In line with BBC practice throughout the past five years, he also makes no effort to inform his readers about the antisemitic agenda of the group he portrays as “pro-Palestinian” rather than anti-Israel. That information is obviously crucial to readers trying to make up their own minds about the virtue signalling of an Irish writer that is the topic of his report.
The sole descriptions of Palestine Action’s specific “activities” provided by Lambert himself read as follows:
“…some of its members broke into RAF Brize Norton and sprayed two planes with red paint, causing damages worth an estimated £7m.”
And:
“…in August 2024 alleged Palestine Action supporters broke into Elbit Systems UK in Bristol, an Israeli defence firm that has long been a key target.
Those allegations are due to come to trial in November. Eighteen people deny charges including criminal damage, assault causing actual bodily harm, violent disorder and aggravated burglary.”
Readers may recall that in November 2024, the BBC News website chose to publish a puff-piece concerning two of those people awaiting trial.
Regarding the Irish writer who declared that her BBC fees will be diverted to funding an organisation proscribed in the United Kingdom, Lambert tells readers that:
“Separately in 2021, she [Rooney] refused to allow Beautiful World, Where Are You to be translated into Hebrew by an Israeli publisher, which she said was in support of calls to boycott Israel over its policies towards Palestinians.
At the time, she said it would “be an honour” to have the book translated into Hebrew by a company which shared her political position.”
Notably, Lambert chose not to inform his readers that Rooney’s “political position” includes smearing Israel with the baseless ‘apartheid’ charge.
Neither does he address the question of whether the publicly funded BBC could potentially face legal action given that it now knows what Rooney intends to do with any payments it makes, confining his reporting on that subject to the following two sentences:
“Rooney is not currently working with the BBC on any upcoming projects and has never been a member of staff.”
“A BBC spokesperson said: “Matters relating to proscribed organisations are for the relevant authorities.””
Given that the BBC continues its years-long policy of failing to report fully, accurately and impartially on ‘Palestine Action’, readers clearly cannot “engage fully” with the statements made by long-time anti-Israel activist Sally Rooney that this report amplifies or “build understanding” of the broader issue of the nature of the organisation to which she can comfortably pledge support because it is proscribed by a country in which she does not live.
Related Articles:
WHY DOES BBC NEWS CONTINUE TO UNDER INFORM ON ‘PALESTINE ACTION’?
MORE UNCRITICAL BBC AMPLIFICATION FOR ISRAEL DELEGITIMISATION CAMPAIGNS
