For the first time in 18 years, BBC Arabic’s online coverage completely ignored the Eurovision Song Contest (see 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, no contest in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025).
Reminder: after failed attempts to prevent it from participating, Israeli contestant Noam Bettan won second place in this year’s contest.
Given that BBC is a participant in the competition (representing the UK), the BBC foreign language services in Persian, Turkish, Russian and Chinese – in addition to English, of course – did cover it, including the results.
Notably, BBC Arabic covered the debates and protes
Furthermore, the results of last year, 2025 (translated into Arabic from the original English story by Ian Youngs), were published in an article with the following headline in Arabic:
ISRAEL WINNING SECOND PLACE IN THE EUROVISION CONTEST SPARKS CONTROVERSY OVER THE VOTING SYSTEM
As we noted above, Israel won second place the following year, 2026, even after the voting system was changed.
With Israel finishing as runner-up even after the EBU introduced changes to the voting system, BBC Arabic’s digital editors apparently preferred not to cover Eurovision at all rather than acknowledge that the boycott campaign proved inconsequential, and allegations of a ‘rigged’ process were shown to be untrue.
Their silence also raises the question of whether BBC Arabic’s editorial decisions on Eurovision—in which the BBC itself is a regular participant—are now being shaped by internal political activism.
Maybe on balance we should be relieved that the BBC Arabic Website chose to ignore the event. Had they acknowledged it I dread to think what they might have written.