BBC ignored internal request to correct false claim Anas al-Sharif worked with Hamas
BBC ignored internal request to correct false claim Anas al-Sharif worked with Hamas
The BBC ignored an internal request to correct a false claim that a Palestinian journalist killed by Israel was a Hamas operative, according to a Novara Media report.
BBC Global News reportedly sent an "essential amendment and correction" request on 18 August to around 1,200 BBC journalists regarding a BBC News report about prominent Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif, who was killed in Gaza in early August.
It highlighted a line in the report saying that "The BBC understands Sharif did some work with a Hamas media team in Gaza before the current war."
A targeted Israeli strike killed Sharif on 10 August along with Al Jazeera journalists Mohammed Qreiqeh, Mohammed Noufal and Ibrahim Zaher, as well as freelance journalists Moamen Aliwa and Mohammed al-Khaldi.
Israel said Sharif was "head of a Hamas terrorist cell" but provided no serious evidence for the claim, which Al Jazeera has strenuously denied.
The BBC Global News email said the line in the report should be amended to: "A source has told the BBC that Sharif had worked for a Hamas media team in Gaza before the current conflict, but Al Jazeera has denied this and the BBC News Arabic correspondent also says that he has seen no evidence."
According to Novara, the email was signed by the BBC Global News team, BBC News’ senior controller of news content and the deputy CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs.
But it was not corrected and the line remains uncorrected at time of writing.
'Culture of intimidation'
Novara quoted an unnamed BBC employee saying the email "exposes from the inside the culture of intimidation, fear and political control that journalists are subjected to within the corporation.
"The email admits a reported line that should never have made it onto the BBC’s front page was published without evidence, yet the error remains uncorrected and no one has been held accountable.
"In any other newsroom, such a grave editorial breach on a matter of major public interest, the targeted killing of a fellow journalist, would have led to senior resignations."
Novara said the BBC did not respond to its request for comment.
Sharif, aged 28 when he was killed, was one of Gaza's most prominent reporters and had been awarded the Amnesty International Australia's Human Rights Defender Award for his resilience, commitment to press freedom and "brave and extraordinary" coverage.
Israel led a smear campaign against Sharif for months before his death.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) made a final call for his protection on 24 July.
Sharif told the CPJ of the Israeli campaign against him that "they accuse me of being a terrorist because the occupation wants to assassinate me morally".
Israel has killed at least 247 journalists in Gaza throughout its genocide in the besieged enclave.
A major study in June found that the BBC’s coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza is “systematically biased against Palestinians”, based on analysis of over 35,000 pieces of content produced by the UK's public broadcaster.
The study, conducted by the Muslim Council of Britain's Centre for Media Monitoring (CFMM), which monitors how the national media reports on Islam and Muslims, found that the BBC gives Israeli deaths 33 times more coverage than Palestinian ones.
In an analysis of 3,873 articles and 32,092 broadcast segments from 7 October 2023 to 6 October 2024, the CFMM found that the BBC used emotive terms four times as much for Israeli victims and applied “massacre” 18 times more to Israeli casualties than Palestinian ones.
