BBC forced to correct two Gaza stories a week

[Twiglets1]

The BBC has been forced to correct two stories a week about the Gaza conflict since the Oct 7 attacks on Israel, The Telegraph has revealed.

BBC Arabic has had to make 215 corrections and clarifications over the past two years on stories that were found to be biased, inaccurate or misleading.

The figures follow a week of revelations by The Telegraph of one-sided reporting at the BBC, disclosed in an 8,000-word dossier compiled by a whistleblower, which also accused BBC Arabic of choosing to “minimise Israeli suffering” in the war in Gaza to “paint Israel as the aggressor”.

On Monday, the BBC is also expected to apologise for the misleading editing of a Donald Trump speech in a Panorama documentary, putting further pressure on Tim Davie, the BBC’s director general, to quit.

The media bias campaign group Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (Camera) obtained the corrections after over 100 of its complaints over BBC Arabic’s coverage were upheld.

One of its complaints involved a BBC Arabic report in January this year about the treatment of hostages by the Al-Qassam Brigade, in which the Hamas unit was described as “guarding” the hostages and being “responsible for securing the hostages”, rather than holding them captive.

BBC Arabic – which is part of the World Service and is funded mainly through the licence fee – has also been forced to make more than 40 corrections after Camera complained about stories that incorrectly referred to communities inside Israel’s internationally recognised territory as “settlements” and their residents as “settlers”.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11/09/bbc-forced-to-correct-two-gaza-stories-a-week/

Agree but good luck.

The BBC by the nature of the industry its a part of will always be left leaning. You've only got to be on mumsnet for 5m to see the whole of the left has a blind spot for antisemitism. They're so purposefully anti racist, and rightly so, that they literally cannot see the racism log in their own eyes. I say that as a lifelong leftie.

My point remains that overall the BBC is an amazing institution and the fact that these people have been forced to fall on their swords just backs that up for me.

It's not perfect, but its really, really good.

Double resignation of 2 BBC bosses due to Trump documentary edit. Maybe they will be more factual in all stories if they appoint new people 🤔 can only hope, clear bias on Trump, Trans and Palestinian/Israel stories.

I kind of agree with you, also as a lifelong leftie. I know lots of people now cancelling their tv licence. I wont yet be joining them but the BBC has been complicit in some shockingly poor journalism and contributed to a cultural climate of dictatorial groupthink around key issues, such as Israel/gaza, feminism and gender ideology and race (Kate Clanchy affair being a good example). Its still an ideal worth fighting for though! Spend 5 minutes in the US and you know why.

Interesting perspective about the US unfit for purpose media that I was not particularly aware of - thank you.

Despite everything, I wouldn’t want to see the BBC destroyed either. It’s still one of the better news sources we have in the UK. But they do need to recognise their own bias and tendency towards group think. Get back to reporting the news as impartially as possible rather than allowing personal opinions to shape what they choose to report & how. And be mindful about not doing anything that could incite more violence at a time when society is very divided.

After 20 years in the US I'd happily pay double the license fee. In fact I'm actually pretty sure both my husband and I pay it so for once I've put my money where my mouth is 😉.

Exactly. And if this means we lose psb it’ll be a tragedy.

Psb is public service broadcaster for anyone who doesn't know (just had to Google it myself)

Oops sorry. Having an independent publicly funded broadcasting service (no adverts) and accountability is amazing.

It is, when they are unbiased, it isn't when they use public money to push agendas of people who run the organisation. They should just run factual stories and cut the bias and opinion.

I agree. They must be neutral and seen to be neutral, it's vital

This is too funny. It's nothing about bias. Some people are very upset that every news corporation is not a mouthpiece for Israeli propaganda. God forbid they might report on war crimes or anything else that paints Israel in a negative light. Israeli leaders calling for the extermination of the Palestinians in Gaza is okay though.

This article made me laugh. They're the victims (of course). Sorry don't have an archive version.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/09/bbc-attack-trump-telegraph-tories-tim-davie-resignation

I think you've been watching too much BBC News.

Of course they are the victims @hellowhaaat3632 😂

The only story regarding this on their front page is a similar 'we're the victims' piece.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c07m2v1z4evo

They just don't get it.

This is a good argument for not forcing the BBC to switch to commercial funding. Under its current funding model, it is answerable, though it takes a lot to get the answer.

The BBC is answerable and yet somehow it hasn't acted that way lately. It took a lot of evidence and a whistleblower to expose multiple examples of bias on a range of topics, and the BBC still tried to hide things under the carpet until the Telegraph made a big thing about it.

Maybe ultimately this will be good for the BBC if it reminds them they have obligations that commercial news organisations don't have, who knows.

No, he didn't. He based it on the wartime Ministry of Information, where he worked, and on Soviet misinformation.

"The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA), formerly the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, is an American nonprofit pro-Israel media-monitoring, research, and membership organization".

Ha ha. So no bias there then!!

What gets me is the journalist is disappointed that there wasn't much pushback while simultaneously admitting the errors. Newsflash: you can't pushback if it's TRUE. It's like admitting that it is a propaganda machine as opposed to a news outlet.

"Leave to one side for now the direct allegations about specific failures of BBC coverage, and the BBC’s own baffling inability or unwillingness to defend itself over the past week"

I'm glad the BBC has been called out on this. The Trump stuff in particular was shocking and should never happened.

However people are talking as if it's easy to give an entirely "neutral" viewpoint and "just give the facts". In reality, a huge amount of journalism is a judgement call - which stories to run, the order/prioritisation of stories, how to weigh up the accuracy of sources, how to ensure unbiased reporting while also running stories from certain angles or locations. I guess I'm questioning whether it's really possible to give a 'neutral perspective'? Do you platform a range of voices and sources and let people decide for themselves ? Or do you give yourself the authority to say 'this is the truth' and expect that to actually be the case?

The Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) have heavily criticized the BBC's overall coverage of the Amalek quote. The BBC, in its pursuit of impartiality, failed to adequately highlight the extreme historical significance and implications of the Amalek commandment, in other words the total destruction of men, women, children and animals, when reporting the quote. That's sounds really biased against Israel doesn't it. Imagine if a British Prime Minister called for the death of every Irish Catholic in Northern Ireland following one of the bombings. They would have been booted out of office immediately.

I strongly agree with this.

In an organization staffed by humans we should absolutely expect bias to creep in from time to time.

There has to be process and accountability to keep it to the absolute bare minimum possible. I hope they're working on this.

Everytime a beeb thread like this pops up I just hear ' Dont it always seem to go, you dont know what you've got til its gone' over and over in my head.

Stop lying!

Where's the lie?
Did you read the report on BBC Arabic?