BBC’s Gaza Coverage: New Report Reveals Deep Bias

[purpletablet]

I’ve just read the 2023–24 report by the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM), and it raises some serious concerns about how the BBC has covered Israel’s war on Gaza.

The report analysed over 3,800 BBC articles and 32,000 broadcast segments. Despite a 34:1 death ratio between Palestinians and Israelis, BBC coverage gave Israeli deaths far more attention, used much more emotive language, and consistently personalised Israeli victims while depersonalising Palestinians.

Some key points that stood out:

• Israeli deaths were mentioned 33 times more per person than Palestinian deaths in BBC articles
• The word “murdered” was used over 200 times for Israelis, but just once for Palestinians
• Presenters echoed Israeli perspectives 11 times more than Palestinian ones
• Historical context like occupation or blockade was mentioned in less than 1% of coverage
• Genocide claims were repeatedly shut down or ignored, despite being raised in international courts

They also compared this to the BBC’s Ukraine coverage, where victims were humanised, civilian deaths highlighted, and military justifications questioned far more frequently.

This isn’t just about bias in tone. It’s about shaping how the public understands the conflict and who is seen as human and worthy of sympathy.

I’m curious how others feel about this.
Have you noticed this imbalance in BBC reporting?
Should a public broadcaster be doing better?

Where are you getting the figure of 29 from? That you have double and cross checked?

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/05/1163166

This report states atleast 57 children have died from malnutrition. This figure doesn't take adults into account.

Here is what I have seen:

Almost entirely normal looking people
Some skinny ones
Some actually fat ones

On three occasions I have seen images where the people looked clearly starving.

One turned out to have a degenerative disease.

One turned out to be in Sudan passed off as Palestine.

And one was the two male Israel hostages who came out looking like they'd been in Dachau.

Here is what starving babies look like: https://abcnews.go.com/International/85000-children-yemen-starved-death-save-children-report/story?id=59340453 although they are in Yemen so you will obvs not give a single fuck.

Well you clearly have not really looked have you. This is unbelievable.

This is just one example.
Or does this baby not look malnutrioned enough for you?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn0g45z792do.amp

I don't check daily, but the last report I read was 29 and included no children. I take the data from Hamas own reports, which is all that is available.

As you can see from this article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip_famine?utm_source=chatgpt.com

"58 people are recorded to have died of starvation or related causes between March 2 and May 25, 2025, including 41 deaths reported on July 8, 2024, per Gaza’s Health Ministry"

So they only updated this yesterday.

When I last checked a few weeks ago it was 29 in total and none were kids.

So my conclusion was babies are not starving. Fair enough, no?!

No it isnt. Babies have been dying from malnutrition before you last checked. This really disingenuous. The UN website and UN organisations on the ground have been reporting of this throughout the war.

Another example

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68483180.amp

And this report is from May.

The article you sent me literally describes the girl is ill and needs tests and some kind of special milk formula. She has been evacuated for medical care.

This is a good example of a BBC article printing something misleading but the full story is that she was born with an esophageal defect that prevented normal breast feeding and made her dependent on special formula, which has been extremely scarce because there is a WAR.

I Googled her condition and here's what I found:

• Feeding difficulty: A defect in the esophagus means milk or formula can't pass properly from the mouth to the stomach, or worse, it goes into the lungs. This makes normal feeding impossible.
• Special nutrition required: These babies usually need feeding tubes or specially prepared formulas and hospital care, especially in the first few months.
• Frequent vomiting, aspiration, and infections: Without proper treatment, babies struggle to gain weight, may choke while feeding, and often suffer from repeated lung infections or pneumonia.
• Delayed growth: Even in the best medical environments, these babies are typically small and can remain underweight for some time due to ongoing feeding difficulties and poor absorption.

So in Siwar’s case, even without the war, she would likely have been at high medical risk and needed urgent surgery and consistent, specialised nutrition. The fact that she was born into a warzone with collapsed healthcare only amplified the consequences of a very serious pre-existing condition.

I am very glad that the Jordanian authorities were able to extract her by ambulance which was done with Israel's full cooperation.

Thanks for proving my point very well.

I think if there's anyone proving a point well it's your incorrect claims of fact checking and cross checking etc are lacking. This isnt the first time either.

Obviously I feel very sorry for baby Siwar and her family @Whatsinanamehey

But I feel it's disingenuous of you to present her case as "just one example" of babies suffering extreme malnutrition as if there are many like her.

Sinwar had specific medical needs from birth. As written in the Guardian From birth, Siwar had a problem with her oesophagus that has made it hard for her to drink breast milk and left her dependent on specialised formula, which is in critically short supply.

I'm not denying that there is a shortage of specialised formula in Gaza which is a tragedy. for her. But her photo is being used over and over again as propaganda to prove malnutrition amongst babies in Gaza, and normally without the accompanying information that she cannot tolerate ordinary baby milk formula or breast milk because of her complex medical needs.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/11/there-is-suffering-everywhere-you-look-says-mother-of-emaciated-baby-girl-trapped-in-gaza

He's a 'conservative' thinker, though I've noticed he can think on his feet and I thought he actually tried to keep his answers relevant to the question (which is a rarity on 'question time' with all the political point scoring ).

His books are what you would expect but he writes coherently and well.

He's spent a lot of time in various trouble spots including Israel and produced much journalistic content. He's a friend of Israel and wary of the spread of extreme islam. So on this board, and probably the left side of mumsnet, that's his bias.

Right, so you're not going to acknowledge that you just tried to pass off a seriously sick child born with a deformity that Israel has evacuated for treatment as being starved.

Ahem!

As I said, I go off Hamas' figures as they are all that's available (and they are still likely bull shit). They said 29 people have starved to death, and some weeks later they said 58. That is a pretty simple explanation even you should be able to understand.

If helpful, we do also know that in that same time period approximately 2.4 million children under 5 have actually starved to death,

India – ~500,000
Nigeria – ~310,000
Pakistan – ~250,000
Ethiopia – ~180,000
Congo – ~160,000
Sudan – ~150,000
Somalia – ~120,000
Yemen – ~110,000
Afghanistan – ~90,000
South Sudan – ~80,000

Of course here you are squabbling with me over 20 and trying to pass off kids born with deformities as being starved by Israel.

I am not sure if you are persuading yourself that you care about starving children, but for avoidance of any doubt you are not persuading me that you're interested in any starving children unless you can (at the very least attempt to) pin it on Israel.

I really enjoyed his writing about China, about the oppression that goes on behind closed doors, and about their grip tightening across the world. Things like the Fentanyl crisis in the US - I found it really interesting and very few real journalists report on this stuff as people are only interested in celebrity break-ups and bashing Israel. As you say, he thinks on his feet which means he can answer questions and I like that about him. Very few people are actually informed on the things they speak about.

I saw this before.along with a picture of the just the lower limbs of two babies who suffered from a genetic condition as ‘evidence’ of malnutrition. I mean there’s no way that if there were starving babies and children in Gaza (and I for one HOPE there is not) that SM wouldn’t be flooded with visible evidence.

Palestinians have documented high rates of consanguinity which contributes to genetic defects which can make babies and children look as if they are malnourished.

How disgusting to use these babies medical conditions for propaganda purposes.

www.unicef.org/sop/what-we-do/health-and-nutrition

Exactly. I find it revolting.

Like you say there's complete certainty that after a very long and brutal war people have horrible conditions, but when people try and exaggerate it - particularly using children - they're more interested in hating Israel than they are in the real suffering.

Douglas Murray is very honest and open about where he stands. He’s also talks a lot of sense IMO. He’s in Israel a lot I think. Been interviewed with bombs going off behind him anyway.

Also I think Colonel Richard Kemp and Andrew Fox (both former British military) also give fair analysis. Andrew Fox has got some interesting Substacks. Both post on X. Both been in Gaza multiple times during the war and have seen what’s going on.

I’d take their word over armchair commentators who have never stepped foot in the region,

Of course all are paid Israeli shills according to posters on here.

I don't read stuff on X generally but I will take a look at Douglas Murray's new book. I like it when people are honest about where they stand so you can take that into account. Thank you.

@ForgesOfEmpires
When I hear reports, I try and verify them. Most things that genuinely happened in Gaza are filmed. I cross check data if I can. Then I apply as much logic to it as I can.

No you don't. Only when it suits.

11.06 this morning you claimed "Hamas has gone into nurseries and knifed a dozen toddlers to death". When asked for evidence of this, you said you'd 'seen it on the internet'.

When pushed further, you linked to an article, showing a picture of a blood-stained room, potentially a nursery, from Oct 7th. The article mentions nothing about the room. Whilst clearly someone was killed there (whether Israeli or Hamas), the only thing we do know is that it wasn't the 12 kids you claim. The nursery wasn't even open because it was the Sabbath and a national holiday.

When this was pointed out to you, you ignored it.

When I hear reports, I try and verify them. Most things that genuinely happened in Gaza are filmed. I cross check data if I can. Then I apply as much logic to it as I can.

I saw a photo of the Kibutz nursery with blood stained floor and walls, published by Reuters and numerous outlets, so I am certain the photo is real. These blood stained photos in the Kibutz kindergarten on October 7 would imply quite strongly that Hamas had been in there on that day and attacked people. I did not say anywhere anything about 12 kids. You invented that.

I cross check data when I can, but Israel has not released data on which children were killed and where, they are all anonymous. I had no need to verify vigorously the details of the photograph, because it was common knowledge that Hamas attacked Israel on that day and hours of footage of them celebrating this massacre were shared proudly with the world.

This was one of many photos and videos shared of that day. I did not look at every photo and video I saw and investigate it forensically, because there is no need to test to voracity of something that is a widely established and undisputed fact. Why would there be?

For your own peace of mind, I have searched for accounts of what occurred as obviously the blood didn't come from nobody. What I found is:

• Many staff were present at the nursery and other communal buildings because it coincided with a national holiday
• Survivors describe buildings and safe rooms “draped in dried blood” and children’s toys scattered across bloodstained floors, marking sites of massacre - including the nursery.
• Militants shot civilians through the building, systematically going room-to-room.

So it sounds very much like they just murdered unarmed nursery teachers, rather than nursery pupils, who were mercifully not there that day.

I am sure though of course, had it been a Monday Hamas would have said "oh no we can't go in there and murder children because we never do that".

I'll have to try consider and explore if I'm xenophobic myself. I get very frustrated with these terms as they're extreme when they say fear or hatred. I'm not ok with these terms.

Would I prefer to be surrounded by the familiar and relatable to me? Yes definitely. If it's a culture or country of origin that I can gel better with or feel more drawn to, yes. I've lived in all sorts of places and feel more comfortable and gel with certain cultures and people of certain geographic origins more than others. I don't think this is xenophobia. I think it's being human and real.

I did not say anywhere anything about 12 kids. You invented that.

Sigh.
Here's the screenshot of you saying this specific thing. I've even highlighted the relevant bits to make it crystal clear.

You made this up.

Ah well then I apologise, I do not remember saying that and I retract it. I’m happy to correct that, as I have no memory at all of saying it, I must have been distracted - but it's curious that you are fact-checking forum posts to ensure a list of atrocities committed by a terrorist group was completely correct. Honestly!

They killed 1200 people that day. Does it actually matter that they killed kindergarten teachers instead of kindergarten pupils because it was a Sunday or Saturday or whatever?

Do you go to serial killer forums and go through lists of Ted Bundy's murders and email the admin to say "well actually Ted didn't kill so and so because it was his day off so you are a liar" ?

It is very, very weird thing to do.

I wouldn't describe Murray as a xenophobe, he has friends and colleagues from all over the world, but as an openly gay man he is rightly cautious in some countries.

If I said that Israel knifed a dozen toddlers how many people do you think would jump in and correct me? Would you find it weird that people were correcting me because I said knifed a dozen toddlers instead of blew up 100s?

Some of the Hasbara on here is ludicrous.
The tactics and obfuscation are obvious.