Readers may have seen the Telegraph’s multi-part exposé of a report on BBC bias compiled by the former independent external adviser to the corporation’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee (EGSC), Michael Prescott, part of which relates to coverage of the war that began on October 7th 2023.
The Telegraph’s report on that part of the story cites several examples of problematic BBC coverage, some of which have been documented by CAMERA UK in the past.
“An internal review of the BBC’s reporting on the death toll in Gaza concluded that the BBC had given “unjustifiable weight” to highly disputed Hamas figures.
In July 2024 the EGSC received the report, which was commissioned after the United Nations revised down its figures for the percentage of the dead who were women and children.
Despite growing concerns about the reliability of data coming out of Hamas-run Gaza, the BBC and the UN had originally reported that 70 per cent of all those killed in Gaza were women and children. The UN later revised this down to 52 per cent.
The internal report said the BBC had given too much credence to the 70 per cent claim for too long, “even though concerns about its credibility were well known”.”
More on that topic here:
LOOKING BEHIND THE BBC’S ‘70% WOMEN AND CHILDREN’ MANTRA
The Telegraph’s report also states:
“Another concern involved the reporting of mass graves in Gaza. In April 2024 the BBC reported on a mass grave found at Nasser hospital and in June 2024 on a mass grave at Al Shifa hospital.
The BBC’s reports gave a “strong implication…that Israeli forces had buried thousands of bodies at both sites prior to withdrawing from the area”, according to the internal review.
In fact, “the most likely explanation was that the graves at both hospitals were dug by Palestinians and the people buried there had died or been killed prior to the arrival of Israeli ground forces”, according to the letter written by Mr Prescott.
The BBC had carried reports of the bodies being found with their hands tied, with evidence of summary executions and torture. But the internal report noted there was “no independent corroboration” of this, and that the source of the mass graves stories was the Hamas-run Gaza Civil Defence Agency.”
More on that story here:
HOW DID A BBC REPORT ON ‘MASS GRAVES’ COME ABOUT?
BBC NEWS YET AGAIN TOUTS HAMAS DENIALS OF EXPLOITATION OF HOSPITALS
The Telegraph’s report also mentions the claim made by UN OCHA’s Tom Fletcher that was promoted in BBC content.
“Yet another error occurred regarding a claim that 14,000 babies were at risk of starving to death in 48 hours. It was originally made by UN official Tom Fletcher in May this year during Israel’s aid blockade, but it quickly became clear that the correct figure was 14,000 children being at risk over the course of a year.”
More on that topic here:
CROSS-PLATFORM PROMOTION OF UN DISINFORMATION BY THE BBC
HOW IS THE BBC HANDLING ITS OWN PROMOTION OF ‘14,000 BABIES’ DISINFORMATION?
Under the sub-heading “Foot dragging over incorrect genocide claim” the Telegraph reports that:
“The BBC repeatedly reported that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) had ruled in January 2024 that there was a “plausible case of genocide” in Gaza.
It was mentioned by Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s International Editor, among others, and on Newsnight and various television and radio reports.
Joan Donoghue, the former ICJ president, told the BBC’s HardTalk programme that the media had widely misinterpreted its findings and it was not correct to say the ICJ had found a plausible case of genocide.
An internal BBC review into the matter found that the ICJ’s ruling “is very clear and explicitly states that the court is not making any determination on the merits” of claims of genocide, but only on whether what was being alleged was covered by the genocide convention.
Mr Prescott said in his letter: “The ICJ report runs to just 26 pages and is written in non-technical language. Had no BBC reporter troubled themselves to read it?”
It took months for the BBC to issue a clarification.”
More on that story here:
A BBC INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS MULTIPLE BBC MISREPRESENTATIONS OF ICJ RULING
BBC UNABLE TO REPLY TO A COMPLAINT ABOUT ITEMS IT ALREADY AMENDED
BBC CONFIRMS SIX CORRECTIONS 16 MONTHS AFTER CAMERA UK COMPLAINT
The Telegraph’s report goes on to note BBC Arabic’s platforming of journalists with problematic social media records.
“In April 2025, The Telegraph reported that BBC Arabic had given a regular platform to a pro-Hamas journalist called Samer Elzaenen, who had said online that Jews should be burned “as Hitler did”. […]
Ahmed Qannan, another BBC Arabic regular, described a 26-year-old Palestinian who killed four Israeli civilians and a police officer in March 2022 as a “hero”. Writing on Facebook in response to a friend who said “we want to see some throats cut”, Qannan wrote: “Don’t give up on your ambition.” […]
Ahmed Alagha, who described Israelis as less than human and Jews as “devils”, appeared on BBC Arabic 522 times between November 2023 and April 2025, the BBC’s internal review found.”
More on Alagha here:
ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE BBC’S FAILURE TO VET ‘TRUSTED LOCAL JOURNALISTS’
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Everything is well done
I have followed your research throughout these last terrible years and been horrified by how easily people have been taken in by antisemitic misinformation propagated by media that were once assumed to be respect worthy and reliable, such as The Guardian, Channel 4 and the BBC. I hope now that their lies and deceit can be exposed fully, but already I see that the revelations are being minimised as far as possible by most media outlets. You still have an enormous job to do to force the public to acknowledge that they have been played on a massive scale.