ALBAWABA - In a letter addressing General Director Tim Davie, 237 media personalities, including 101 BBC staff members, accused the British public broadcaster of providing biased coverage of the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza.
The letter, seen exclusively by The Independent, accused the BBC of providing its audience with clearly biased coverage towards Israel, calling on the long-standing broadcaster to "recommit to fairness, accuracy, and impartiality" when delivering stories on Gaza.
The Independent first broke the letter to the public earlier on Friday.
It was signed by more than 230 media personalities, including 101 anonymous BBC staff, journalists from other media organizations as well as historians, actors, academics, and politicians, and was addressed to BBC chief Tim Davie.
The letter also accused the BBC of breaching its own editorial guidelines and standards by the lack of "fair and accurate evidence-based journalism in its coverage of Gaza,".
One journalist said: "We often seem to prefer to leave Israel out of the headline if at all possible or cast doubt on who could be to blame for airstrikes. The verification level expected for anything related to Gaza hugely outweighs what is the norm for other countries,".
Journalists also accused the BBC of dehumanizing the stories of Palestinians across Gaza and using misleading titles for articles, including one used for the story of 6-year-old Hind Rajab, who was killed by Israeli bulldozers along with her family as they were trapped in their car in Tal Al Hawa.
The headline used for the story was "Hind Rajab, 6, found dead in Gaza days after phone calls for help". Infuriated by the title used to describe the blatant crime, a BBC staff member said: "This was not an act of God. The perpetrator, Israel, should have been in the headline, and it should have been clear that she was killed,".
It also highlighted the broadcaster's "failure to live broadcast South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice on 11 January but choosing to live broadcast Israel’s defense the following day" shedding light on what some deem as evident bias towards the Israeli side of events.
A current BBC staff member told The Independent that some employees rendered their resignations over its coverage of what has been happening in Gaza, stating that so many are paralyzed by fear for their careers.
"I have colleagues who have left the BBC in recent months because they just don’t believe our reporting on Israel and Palestine is honest. So many of us feel paralyzed by the levels of fear," the staff member told The Independent.
By many, the letter is considered a reflection of how deeply rooted the bias towards Israel is in major news gurus across the industry, encouraging journalists to stand up for what they believe to align with their morals.
Article By: Batool Darweesh
