For months, dozens of lawyers and data analysis experts sat down to examine, from a professional standpoint, the way the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has been covering the war in Gaza since the terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7. Leading the effort was British-Israeli lawyer Trevor Asserson, who has extensive experience in fighting biased coverage of Israel by the BBC. He and his team collected materials, transcribed podcasts, watched video broadcasts, translated material from the BBC Arabic service, and reviewed the 9-million-word database they had created. The result: a comprehensive, 200-page report, submitted over the weekend to British authorities, that is a scathing indictment of the national broadcaster's "deeply worrying pattern of bias."
Asserson (67), immigrated to Israel from Britain more than three decades ago. He is a lawyer, and the founder and senior partner at Asserson Law Offices, an international law firm that employs about 60 lawyers working in commercial law and dispute resolution around the world. He had already waged a high-profile battle in the early 2000s against the way the BBC covered the Second Intifada. That led to an internal report that was shelved (as well as an expensive legal battle to prevent its publication at the British taxpayer’s expense -- A.U.), but it reinforced the perception that the British network has a problem when it comes to covering Israel.
Following the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas, the BBC’s reporting became an object of mockery on Israeli television’s "Eretz Nehederet" ("A Wonderful Country") satirical comedy show, but its biased coverage continued unabated. Asserson decided it was time to go back into the breach. In a November 29, 2023 interview with "Globes," Asserson said he knew what needed to be done, the necessary procedures for filing an official complaint with the network, and how to substantiate his claims systematically. Now, the examination is over, and the result represents a failing grade for the network in an area in which it tries to present a perfect image - fair, impartial coverage.
The findings speak for themselves, says Asserson. Israel was associated with the term "war crimes" in BBC reporting 592 times, during the Reporting Timeframe (the four months after October 7), compared with only 98 times in the context of Hamas - almost six times to Israel’s detriment. In addition, in its initial reporting, the BBC categorically refused to define Hamas as a terrorist organization; following public and political pressure, it agreed to call Hamas, "where possible," a "proscribed terrorist organization." However, the review found that the network actually did this in only 7.7% of cases. The report lists more than 1,500 violations of the network's own editorial guidelines of accuracy and balance.
"The surprising thing is quite how bad it was," said Asserson talking to "Globes" this week, "and how appalling BBC Arabic is - just a platform for Hamas."
The report attempts a "sympathy analysis", involving many variables, including framing, use of certain terms, use of images, and engagement with topics that evoke sympathy for one side or the other, and more. The analysis was conducted using both human reviewers and validated artificial intelligence tools. The report finds, for example, that on the BBC website in English, sympathy for the Palestinians was twice as great as for the Israelis (an imbalance ranging from 62% - 66%).
As mentioned, a large part of the report is devoted to BBC Arabic, where there are deep-seated problems, according to Asserson and his team, including identification with Hamas by some employees, statements in favor of the destruction of Israel, and tendentious coverage not in keeping with British media public standards (Ofcom’s Standards and Fairness Codes). BBC Arabic exhibited pro-Palestinian bias in 90%-plus of web articles and videos, even on October 7, during the murderous attack against Israel. According to Asserson, "BBC Arabic was found to be close to 'Al Jazeera' and 'Iran Times' in general sympathy levels."
The pro-Palestinian bias runs deep, and is prevalent in most of the network's broadcasts, says Asserson. "If you look across all the BBC’s principal television news programs, only three -- Newsnight, Breakfast TV and News at Ten - maintain some kind of neutrality. The rest present anti-Israel coverage about 95% of the time." Among BBC’s wrongdoings he also mentions the fact that the network uses Hamas members under the guise of "neutral interviewees."
"The findings reveal a deeply worrying pattern of bias and multiple breaches by the BBC of its own editorial guidelines on impartiality, fairness and establishing the truth," the report reads. "The BBC’s responsibility as a public service broadcaster is to deliver news without bias. Our analysis reveals a significant deviation from this standard, especially in its reporting on the Israel-Hamas conflict, where the broadcaster showed a clear partiality towards one side. This bias was even more pronounced in the BBC’s Arabic content. Such conduct not only breaches the BBC’s Royal Charter but also calls into question its suitability for continued public funding."
Ever since it appeared on the cover of "The Sunday Telegraph," the report has caused an uproar in Britain. Conservative politicians are calling on the government to act on the matter, and Jewish organizations fighting antisemitism have also backed the report's findings, with some stating the BBC was behaving with "high-handed arrogance" for refusing the accept criticism.
"I think that the response in the UK has been extraordinarily positive, and in Israel too. There is such widespread disgust and frustration with BBC coverage," says Asserson. The network itself rejected the testing methodology, saying it had "serious questions about the methodology of this report, particularly its heavy reliance on AI to analyze impartiality," adding that it was "required to achieve due impartiality, rather than the ‘balance of sympathy’ proposed in the report… However, we will consider the report carefully and respond directly to the authors once we have had time to study it in detail."
According to Asserson, one of the main problems is that, "The BBC has no internal systems for achieving impartiality." If he were head of the organization, he says, he would "institute independent complaints procedures, set proper management KPIs and a proper management grip on achieving guidelines," adding that he would also "sack a few people, or move them elsewhere."
Two main BBC personalities on which the report focuses are International Editor Jeremy Bowen and Senior Presenter Lyse Doucet, (who are familiar to Israeli viewers as well). In their podcast series, 84% of the content was found to be pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel.
Along with publishing the report, Asserson has also launched a non-government organization that will work to combat bias in the media, called the Campaign for Media Standards, and he tells "Globes" that he will continue the fight. Asserson estimates that the cost of the work so far at £500,000 (NIS 2.5 million), with a team of about 20 lawyers and 20 data analysts. "One businessman paid out-of-pocket expenses," he says. "Most of the work was done for free."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on September 11, 2024.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2024.