Open letter to the BBC, on double standards over staff breaches of impartiality and social media guidelines

To: Matt Brittin and Rhodri Talfan Davies, Director-General and Deputy Director-General of the BBC

We are writing to bring to your attention, and that of the wider public, a glaring double standard in how the BBC enforces its social media and impartiality guidelines.

Specifically, there is a stark discrepancy between the BBC’s treatment of Radio Lancashire presenter Sean McGinty and several BBC Arabic staff members regarding their social media commentary surrounding the October 7 attacks.

Sean McGinty was dismissed for gross misconduct in 2024 after publicly criticising the BBC’s refusal to describe Hamas as “terrorists” and taking issue with a colleague who appeared to provide justification for the appalling October 7 atrocities committed by Palestinian terrorists.

When Mr. McGinty challenged his dismissal, an employment tribunal sided with the BBC, ruling that he had breached the obligations imposed upon him as a journalist.

Conversely, the BBC has demonstrated remarkable leniency toward BBC Arabic employees who posted and “liked” online comments praising the atrocities, with one of them even mocking the victims. Correspondent Sally Nabil liked nearly a dozen such tweets, including one calling the attacks “a morning of hope”.

Correspondent Salma Khattab liked a post suggesting Hamas were freedom fighters resisting occupation, while correspondent Sanaa Elkhoury liked posts celebrating the massacre, including one which echoed Elkhoury’s own tweet about sweets being distributed in Lebanon.

Producer Mahmoud Sheleib joked about an abducted Israeli grandmother leaving behind an “inheritance” and argued that young Israelis should not be regarded as civilians at all.

Despite the BBC launching an “urgent” investigation into this hateful online activity, no public disciplinary consequences appear to have followed and these individuals were later able to continue contributing to BBC Arabic output.

Worse still, they have continued to take part in shaping the BBC’s coverage of Jewish and Israeli affairs. Not only were they reporting on highly sensitive subjects such as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, U.S.-Israel summits and legal proceedings involving Israel, they also platformed alleged “experts” and “eyewitnesses” from the region whose social media records about Israel and Jews resembled their own.

Ms Elkhoury has even resumed her position as BBC Arabic’s religious affairs correspondent, a role that putatively places the world’s largest Jewish community and its religious practices well within her remit, for more than a year after her bigotry was exposed.

It is important to stress that, unlike the BBC Arabic staff mentioned above, Mr McGinty’s conduct never indicated support for violence against civilians, of the kind that should correctly raise serious questions about professional and ethical judgment. Nor did he regularly report on the same subjects about which he was posting on social media.

The contrast is difficult to reconcile. Employees who publicly endorsed or trivialised violence against civilians were retained by the BBC and allowed to carry on influencing its view of the conflict, yet a journalist who criticised the BBC’s terminology and accurately described Hamas as a terrorist organisation lost his job.

The quality of journalism cannot be separated from the conduct and judgment of those who produce it. It is strikingly obvious that the conduct of those BBC Arabic staff called into question their ability to uphold the BBC’s stated standards of accuracy and impartiality when covering Jewish and Israeli affairs. They should never have been permitted to return to the newsroom, let alone continue reporting on this very conflict for the BBC.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews raised these concerns about BBC Arabic in an open letter as early as November 2023—to which the BBC stated it would respond “in due course” but no substantive public response has followed. This fact indicates that the BBC appears willing to address the concerns of some minority groups while disregarding those of others.

The BBC’s impartiality and social media standards must be applied consistently across all departments and all employees. We therefore urge you to address this apparent double standard in order to help restore confidence that those standards are being enforced fairly. This is the least that BBC licence payers deserve.

Sincerely,

Adam Levick

CAMERA – The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis

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Here’s their response, which, as you’ll see, doesn’t address any of the points we raised.