Israel’s Foreign Ministry responded on Sunday to the resignation of the Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Tim Davie, and the corporation’s CEO of News and Current Affairs, Deborah Turness.
The two senior executives of the UK’s public broadcaster stepped down after a public outcry erupted over the editing of US President Donald Trump’s January 6, 2021 speech, featured in a documentary aired last year.
“The resignation of the BBC Director-General underscores the deep-seated bias that has long characterized the BBC’s coverage of Israel. For far too long, the BBC has spread disinformation that fuels antisemitism and radicalization,” said the Foreign Ministry.
“But the problem extends beyond the BBC - far too many news outlets are promoting politics disguised as facts, amplifying Hamas’s fake campaigns,” it added.
“The time has come for real accountability to restore integrity, fair and factual journalism,” concluded the Foreign Ministry’s statement.
Public criticism against the BBC intensified in recent weeks after reports revealed that the edited version of Trump’s speech omitted a key passage in which he called on demonstrators to “act peacefully” and edited together parts that were separated by a substantial period of time to make them seem like they were spoken at the same time.
Critics accused the BBC of intentional manipulation, violating the broadcaster’s explicit obligation to objectivity under its charter.
The controversy deepened after excerpts were leaked from an internal report prepared by Michael Prescott, a special consultant hired by the BBC to review its editorial standards and professional guidelines.
The report also criticized the BBC’s coverage of transgender issues and cited evidence of anti-Israel bias in the network’s Arabic-language broadcasts.
The BBC has continuously come under fire over its anti-Israel bias, which has reared its head even more since October 7, 2023.
In November of 2023, the corporation published an apology after falsely claiming that IDF troops were targeting medical teams in battles in and around the Shifa Hospital in Gaza.
Before that, the BBC falsely accused Israel of being responsible for an explosion at a hospital in Gaza, which the IDF proved was caused by an Islamic Jihad rocket. The network later acknowledged that “it was false to speculate” on the explosion.
Earlier this year, the BBC faced mounting scrutiny for using the son of a senior Hamas official as a narrator in its documentary “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone.”
Following the criticism, the British broadcaster acknowledged that there were “serious flaws” in the program.
Several weeks ago, the BBC issued an apology after internal backlash over an email sent to staff referring to Hamas’s October 7 massacre as an “escalation.”