BBC defends impartiality of Gaza report that used Iran-backed journalist
A BBC News report on the Gaza conflict that used an Iranian-backed journalist as an eyewitness was “fair and impartial”, the corporation’s news chief has claimed.
A report by the BBC Verify unit into Israeli troops opening fire on an aid convoy in Gaza included an account by Mahmoud Awadeyah, a journalist on the scene.
It later emerged that Mr Awadeyah works for the Tasnim News Agency, an Iranian outlet with links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. His social media feed reportedly features posts that appear to praise a January 2023 terrorist attack that left seven Israelis dead.
Mr Awadeyah’s history was highlighted earlier this week by The Telegraph.
However, asked about the report during a communications and digital committee session in the House of Lords, Deborah Turness, the chief executive of BBC News, said: “If you look at the data about our coverage of the Israel-Gaza issue, it points to us being the most publicly trusted media outlet for impartial coverage.
“So we are happy that the way we approached that story is fair and impartial. BBC Verify approached the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) as well on that story, and so obviously we feel that we were transparent in our journalism in that case.”
Ms Turness added that “BBC Verify seeks to get multiple eyewitness accounts from the ground and is very clear about where it sources them from”.
Addressing the committee, Ms Turness suggested that The Telegraph was biased in its coverage.
“In the very unfortunate incident where people were killed during the aid convoy event, we made no particular claims about the eyewitnesses. But what I would say is the report was positioned in a hostile media outlet which has always reported negatively on the BBC’s coverage of the Israel-Gaza issue.”
The Telegraph reported in January that Jewish staff working for the BBC had lodged formal complaints about anti-Semitism, including the corporation’s coverage of the conflict.
Asked if the BBC would be investigating the way in which it represented Mr Awadeyah in the report, Ms Turness said: “We will look at that. But for now we believe that the journalism was good, and it was an account of what eyewitnesses were telling BBC Arabic journalists on the ground at the time.”
The BBC Verify unit is a “highly specialised operation” using forensic investigative skills and open source intelligence to verify video and fact-check stories, according to the corporation.
Ms Turness explained: “The whole point of BBC Verify is to be transparent about the journalism we do. There are conflicting accounts of what happens on the ground in Gaza and in Israel. It’s a war and you would expect there to be different views of the report that we do.
“Indeed, we receive an awful lot of incoming complaints about our journalism, equally weighted from both sides of the conflict. It doesn’t mean to say we’re happy with that position; we always listen, and we’ve responded in being really transparent.
“Where we’ve made any mistakes, we do put our hands up.”
