UK
Board of Deputies calls on BBC to move ‘firmer, further and faster’ over coverage ‘bias’
The Board also urged the corporation to improve its ‘treatment of Jewish staff and contractors’
April 12, 2025 13:14
The Board also urged the corporation to improve its ‘treatment of Jewish staff and contractors’
April 12, 2025 13:14The Board of Deputies has called on the BBC to move “firmer, further and faster” over several issues of concern for the Jewish community, including allegations of bias in its Middle East coverage and poor treatment of Jewish staff.
Following a meeting with BBC Director-General Tim Davie last month, the Board confirmed it had given him a “list of clear actions” to take following what it called “a series of editorial disasters”.
These “disasters” included the withdrawal of a documentary about the war in Gaza after it was discovered that its teenage narrator was the son of a senior Hamas official, which BBC Chair Samir Shah called a “dagger to the heart” of the corporation’s impartiality while testifying to Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee in March.
The Board also set a deadline of today, the first day of Passover, to see progress on these issues.
In a statement yesterday, it confirmed that the BBC had agreed to “an independent Thematic Review into its coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict” and a “full fact-finding review into the making of the highly problematic programme Gaza: How To Survive a Warzone”, with the latter already underway
It added that the corporation had “facilitated training on antisemitism over the past year” and is “considering plans to roll out training more widely”, saying: ”Given serious concerns about the health and well-being of Jewish staff at the BBC, we will be engaging with the BBC to ensure that, going forward, the quality and content of this training is what the Jewish community would expect.”
However, the Board called on the BBC to change its editorial practices to always refer to Hamas and Hezbollah as proscribed terrorist organisations in its news output and introduce “means of rapidly addressing serious editorial failures”.
Board President Phil Rosenberg said: “As we reach the Passover deadline we set the BBC leadership, we can acknowledge that there appears to have been some progress on the issues we raised.
"As yet, this has not gone as far or as deep as will be required to fix the problems that we have identified.
“In order to regain public confidence, and the confidence of its Jewish staff, the BBC leadership must move firmer, further and faster to address these concerns.
"We will continue to engage, robustly where necessary, to ensure that the content and culture of our national broadcaster is worthy of its place of responsibility in our society.”
A BBC spokesperson said: “We were pleased to meet the Board of Deputies and are committed to continuing an open and ongoing dialogue.
“We take the matters raised with us extremely seriously and have updated them on a number of the topics they raise, including around training for staff and launching an independent Thematic Review of our Israel-Gaza coverage.
“The BBC is committed to upholding the highest possible editorial standards across our output, reporting impartially to maintain the trust of audiences.
“The conduct and welfare of all of our staff is an absolute priority and we have well-established and robust processes in place to handle any concerns or complaints raised with us.”