A new report examining the BBC's media coverage during the first four months of the Iron Sword War between Israel and Hamas found that the British Broadcasting Corporation violated its editorial regulations and procedures 1,500 times in its coverage - and a pattern of bias against Israel was revealed in its broadcasts on various platforms.
According to the data, Israel was mentioned in the context of genocide 14 times more often than Hamas, and with violations of international law 6 times more often than Hamas - all while violating many principles of objectivity and accuracy. The term "terrorist organization" was attached to Hamas in only 3.21% of the mentions.
The report, published last night by a group of about 40 lawyers and data professionals, tracks BBC coverage on television, radio, the internet, social media and podcasts in the first four months of the war.
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The report's authors wrote that the coverage underplayed Hamas's terrorism, while Israel was frequently portrayed as a militaristic and aggressive nation.
According to the report's authors, the BBC Arabic channel was identified as being completely biased against Israel in its news reporting, and they point an accusing finger at the BBC Arabic channel. They claim that some of the journalists working there have celebrated Hamas' terrorist acts on other platforms or have shown sympathy for the terrorist organization.
The report's editors used artificial intelligence to examine 9 million words spoken in the context of the war. They found 1,553 violations of the network's own editorial guidelines, which include lack of bias, ethical accuracy in editing content, and working in the public interest.
Following the report's findings, two Jewish organizations in the Kingdom, as well as British members of parliament, called for an independent investigation into the BBC's - considered one of the most influential media networks in the world - coverage of the war.
According to them, "the findings undermine the BBC's credibility and raise concerns about the impact of biased coverage on global public opinion.".
The BBC responded to the report's findings and announced that it would examine it carefully, but at the same time noted that it disagreed with the way the study was conducted, which it said was based on artificial intelligence analysis to check for bias.
