BBC to attribute Israel-Hamas war claims more clearly after accusations of bias - The Telegraph

The BBC has pledged to attribute claims more clearly after accusations of bias in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.

The broadcaster has been criticised for its coverage of the conflict, including its refusal to brand Hamas terrorists and its reporting of the explosion at the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza.

Executives said some changes would be made to “increase clarity and accuracy”.

Deborah Turness, head of BBC News and Current Affairs, told staff in an open message: “We are putting in place some additional safeguards around how we attribute and describe sources and information in our coverage of this war.”

The executive explained that the attribution of claims will be altered, with the person or party making the claims now coming before the claim itself, so “instead of ‘Hundreds killed, X claims’, we will start ‘X claims hundreds killed’.”

Ms Turness restated the BBC’s position that parties are not to be called terrorists without attribution, and said that the BBC had not banned the use of the word “militant”, but would no longer use it as the default when referring to Hamas.

Civilian deaths reporting to change

Another key change will be how the BBC reports on civilian deaths in future, in an effort to avoid being accused of bias from either side in the conflict.

Ms Turness wrote: “We also need to think carefully about how we talk about civilian deaths, and how the language we use may, unintentionally, give the impression we view some deaths as more important than others or treat people on either side differently.

“A tweet which said people ‘died’ in Gaza and ‘were killed’ in Israel has been widely used as an example of this. It’s important that we all think carefully about the language we use to avoid creating a false impression.”

The tweaks to the broadcaster’s style come after criticism of its Editorial Guidelines, which prevent journalists from branding Hamas terrorists.

The BBC and other broadcasters’ use of words like “militant” in place of “terrorist” has drawn criticism from figures including the Chief Rabbi and the Prime Minister.

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2023-10-26 20:03:00Z
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