On the evening of March 7th the BBC News website published a report by Alice Cuddy who is described in the by-line as “Senior international reporter, Nabi Chit”.
Only in paragraph ten of that report – headlined “Dozens killed as Israeli special forces raid Lebanese village in search of 40-year-old remains” – do readers discover that Cuddy’s visit earlier in the day to the Hizballah stronghold of Nabi Chit in the Bekaa Valley was facilitated by the terrorist organisation itself.
“Hezbollah – which is the main force in the area – allowed journalists into the town to see the scale of the destruction.
The Shia militia and political group is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK, US and others.”
Cuddy begins her report by telling BBC audiences that:
“Dozens more people have been killed in Lebanon in major Israeli air and ground operations, as the war with the Iran-backed group Hezbollah continues to escalate.
Overnight, one Israeli operation in a town in the eastern Bekaa Valley – a focal point of the rising hostilities – saw at least 41 people killed and 40 injured, according to the Lebanese health ministry.
Three Lebanese soldiers were among the dead, and locals listed the names of civilians, including children, they said had been killed.
The focus of the operation in Nabi Chit was recovering the remains of an Israeli military airman who went missing in Lebanon 40 years ago.
On Saturday, there was a hole in the ground in the corner of the town cemetery where a grave had been dug up.
“They thought he was there but there was nothing,” one local man said, gesturing at the empty grave.”
Failing to clarify that the residents of Nabi Chit had been advised to evacuate the area hours earlier – a fact she only mentions in paragraph twenty-one – Cuddy goes on:
“Elsewhere in the town, bullet holes were scattered across a destroyed car and its seats were stained red with blood.
Around the area, buildings had been reduced to piles of rubble and a huge crater had been blown into the ground, damaging the surrounding houses.
Signs of civilian life, including a children’s colouring book, paintings and cooking utensils, were among the debris.”
Cuddy then quotes the Lebanese army’s account of the events before going on to tell readers that:
“In Nabi Chit, clashes then broke out on the streets between the Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters, and civilians defending their homes.”
In fact, no such “clashes” took place.
“On Saturday afternoon, the IDF confirmed the raid, but said that contrary to Hezbollah claims, there had been no clashes with the Iran-backed forces and no fire was directed at the forces.”
Cuddy goes on to quote an unidentified “local official” who again promotes the false narrative of “clashes” and whose language suggests affiliation or alignment with Hizballah: [emphasis added]
“”At midnight, we felt a strange movement on one side of the village. It turned out to be an Israeli commando unit deployed for some mission,” a local official said at the site of one major explosion.
“The resistance then surrounded them and heavy clashes ensued. Then the air force increased their air strikes to allow the extraction of their unit which caused tremendous damage”.”
Readers then find extensive vox-pop quotes from several local residents who apparently did not heed the evacuation orders.
“A woman walking around the destroyed houses screamed: “Israel is attacking us unjustly. We are Hezbollah and we will prevail.””
It is of course unsurprising to find a BBC journalist who participated in a Hizballah-organised media tour promoting that organisation’s version of events while failing to note the reports of Hizballah operatives having been killed.
This is by no means the first time that BBC journalists based in Lebanon have participated in Hizballah-organised media tours or produced reporting that needed advance approval from that Iranian proxy.
However, as is once again evident in Cuddy’s latest article, the BBC still does not appear to be overly concerned about the standards of accuracy and impartiality in reporting produced thanks to a media tour initiated by a terrorist organisation.
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