British jews suggest the BBC is "anti-semitic" because it doesn't read Arabic

[yankeedoodle]

BBC failed to act on 'hate' comments on its social media channels
Remarks in Arabic praising terrorism and denying the Holocaust were allowed to remain on its pages
https://www.thejc.com/news/news/bbc-failed-to-act-on-'hate'-comments-on-its-social-media-channels-1WgLjy8pzCs7K4giprLgod?reloadTime=1655991355520

The BBC has admitted that hundreds of viewer comments in Arabic that praised terrorism and either denied or downplayed the Holocaust were allowed to remain on its social media pages unmoderated over the last five months, breaking its own guidelines.

The broadcaster regularly shares its Arabic language content on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, posting them on pages and channels it administers. Since March, the BBC made 27 social media posts relating to the killing of Israeli civilians by Palestinian terrorists, and several others relating to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's assertion that Hitler had Jewish ancestry.

The watchdog organisation CAMERA Arabic translated hundreds of viewers' and readers' responses left on the British broadcaster's social media pages, revealing a barrage of antisemitic and pro-terror comments that were left unmoderated until challenged by the JC this week.

Following the March terror attack in Bnei Brak, in which 26-year-old Palestinian Diaa Hamarsheh killed five people, the BBC posted a "trending" video that prompted viewers on YouTube to comment, calling the attack "excellent work of self defence" carried out by "martyrs". Other comments declared "killing Jews is one of the most desirable offerings for Allah" and "Our martyrs are in heaven and their dead are in hell". Another wrote: "If these heroes continue with an operation even once a week, there will not be a virus called 'the Jews of Israel' left anymore."

A BBC report posted to its Arabic Facebook page on 22 March after four people were killed and two injured in a stabbing and vehicle-ramming attack in Beersheba prompted similar reactions. One comment called it "wonderful news" while another complained "we all want more but four are better than nothing. May Allah increase the number of their dead." Another comment urged "Allah, increase the number of their dead, Allah, Allah, hasten their end with Allah's will" while a separate user wrote that the terrorist was now "in the highest of heavens". The BBC allowed these comments to remain unmoderated on their Facebook page until earlier this week when the JC challenged them.

The BBC's internal guidelines regulating its social media use say that "audiences will expect BBC run spaces on third-party platforms to reflect similar values to our on platform activity" adding that "we should not rely entirely on the platforms themselves to manage communities on BBC spaces. We need to take overall responsibility." Among the precautions the guidelines suggest are "turning off comments" for posts likely to provoke offensive or illegal responses.

The guidelines say that in the "comment and conversation" prompted by its content on BBC social media channels, it should "accommodate the widest possible range of opinions consistent with our duty of care, appropriate language and behaviour, and the law."

Though the broadcaster says it deleted and hid thousands of comments and banned hundreds of accounts during the past five months using automatic profanity filters at the highest level of strictness, CAMERA highlighted hundreds of comments praising the killing of Jewish civilians that remained unmoderated across multiple BBC social media accounts.

Following the wave of terrorist attacks in Israel earlier this year, comments hosted on the BBC's accounts said "killing the occupier is a religious obligation" and another "our Lord destroys the Jews". After one attack, a BBC viewer wrote "five corpses dropped dead, their existence was damaging planet Earth" while others added, "We are the righteous and you are the null and void, sons of apes and pigs" and "excellent, no Israeli should enjoy safety, they must live in constant horror and fear."

After Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last month suggested Hitler had Jewish ancestry, BBC Arabic published a 'trending' video on the subject on its YouTube account. This prompted antisemitic Arabic comments from viewers which the BBC failed to remove from its channel for several weeks, many of which distorted or denied the Holocaust, or called for a further Holocaust: "The next Holocaust will be in Palestine, bigger and more total with Allah's help," declared one angry user; a sentiment echoed by another who wrote, "The real Holocaust has not happened yet, it will soon with Allah almighty's will." A third added that "the lie of the Holocaust is the excuse used to create the usurper Zionist entity on Palestine's land".

A leading academic who researches online antisemitism and anti-Muslim prejudice described the barrage of antisemitic, pro-terrorist and Holocaust distorting comments hosted on the BBC's social media accounts as "clear breaches of the anti-terror legislation."

Prof Lesley Klaff from Sheffield Hallam University told the JC some of the comments "could be classed as incitement", adding "there were breaches of the law and I was just surprised that they hadn't been moderated and that they'd been left on the site. Because those comments are on these social media platforms it gives a message that it's acceptable discourse and that it's an acceptable narrative to call for the murder of Jews or to deny the Holocaust."

When challenged by the JC, the BBC conceded the comments were "offensive and inappropriate" and removed all user comments including those praising terrorism. However, the broadcaster cannot alter replies left on Twitter, where many remain. Twitter has removed some of the offending posts after the JC contacted the company.

Despite suggesting the option in its own guidelines, at the time of going to press, the BBC had not committed to switching off the comments function on future posts about Israeli civilian deaths or Holocaust distortions to prevent antisemitic, pro-terrorist or Holocaust-denying comments on its accounts. A BBC spokesperson said "BBC News Arabic is committed to upholding BBC guidelines on managing social media accounts and comments left under third-party platforms. We have millions of followers on social media and receive a huge number of comments daily. We manually moderate comments regularly and block individuals who repeatedly abuse these platforms. These offensive and inappropriate comments have been deleted."

A Twitter spokesperson said: "Antisemitism has no place on Twitter. We have removed the majority of the tweets referenced for violations of our Hateful Conduct policy and Glorification of Violence policy. We will continue to take action when we identify any Tweets or accounts that violate the Twitter rules."

[yankeedoodle]

British jews are really bullying the BBC over its Arabic Service.  Two articles in the same day.   

BBC secretly reforms Arabic news output
BBC Arabic editors ordered to drop terrorist sympathiser pundit
https://www.thejc.com/news/news/bbc-secretly-reforms-arabic-news-output-2MipX2oqo0btbgK1IGqpst?reloadTime=1670524967600

The BBC has introduced a catalogue of reforms to its Arabic news service — including dropping the controversial terrorist sympathiser Abdel Bari Atwan as a pundit — in the wake of widespread criticism of the corporation's output, the JC can reveal.

The moves are taking place behind closed doors, even as its Director-General continues to publicly defend Mr Atwan, who has expressed sympathy for Sir Salman Rushdie's attacker and defended the 1972 Munich massacre of Israeli Olympians.

"Team leaders in BBC Arabic have told editors to stop using him [Atwan] because he said some problematic things on BBC English," a BBC source said.

In response to an open letter demanding the broadcaster drop Atwan, signed by 36 parliamentarians and public figures, BBC Director-General Tim Davie insisted that using the pundit was "in the public interest".

However, the JC can disclose that behind the scenes, Arabic editors were informally told to drop him. The source added: "We used to have him on a lot, but we have been told not to."

Separately, the broadcaster is rolling out a package of reforms to the department. Amid job losses across the World Service, 70 positions are being cut in BBC Arabic. But at least four Output Monitors are being newly appointed to clean up Arabic language reporting, the source said.

"They will watch BBC Arabic TV broadcasts both before they are aired and afterwards," the source said, "and monitor all the digital stuff to make sure it complies with guidelines."
The source added: "The problem has been quality control. Attitudes in the Arab world are hostile to Israel, and this has been coming through BBC reporting via local journalists."

The reforms — which suggest the BBC is starting to take seriously calls to tighten up its Arabic output — are being implemented for April while the broadcaster maintains its staunch public defence of its output.

It comes after the corporation has suffered months of intense pressure about its Arabic-language service, which stands accused of repeated anti-Israel bias.

According to the source, BBC top brass "read the riot act" to Arabic language journalists in a virtual meeting in the wake of the recent public criticism. "They said, 'we are defending you on this, but we can't do it forever. You must abide by the BBC guidelines from now on'."

And following a year of multiple disclosures by the JC of failings and bias at BBC Arabic, Mohamed Yehia, the department's Head of Multimedia Output, sent an email to Arabic staff ordering journalists to observe BBC guidelines.

In the email, sent in October and seen by the JC, Mr Yehia, who has been at the BBC for 23 years, reminded staff to name the Jewish state "Israel" rather than "Tel Aviv", a reference widely used in Arabic media to imply its lack of legitimacy.

He also told them to abandon the term "Wailing Wall", which carries negative connotations in Arabic, and warned against referring to Israeli towns as "settlements" and all Israelis as "settlers. Mr Yehia also instructed journalists not to report that Israeli forces had entered Al-Aqsa Mosque when they had only breached the outer compound.

"The whole attitude towards Israel has been changing as the JC has published its stories," the BBC source said. "Editors were told by team leaders to stop using Abdel Bari Atwan because of remarks he made on BBC English.

"And there was much more coverage than usual of the Israeli elections this year, which was more in-depth and balanced."

Although staff were aware that the World Service cuts would affect BBC Arabic, the reforms came as a surprise, the source said, especially the new output monitoring roles.

The moves came at the same time that Tim Davie was defending BBC Arabic from the latest round of criticism, in particular over its continued reliance on Mr Atwan.

He said: "We will sometimes include in our output people whose views may cause serious offence to many in our audiences, but where we do so the potential for offence must be weighed against the public interest."

However, his attitude was attacked as "vacuous" by former BBC Governor Baroness Ruth Deech.

The unpublicised changes come after the corporation was accused of a "culture of defensiveness" by broadcasting watchdog Ofcom.

It follows the BBC's defence of the broadcast of a Palestinian folk-song which said "don't leave your weapon in its sheath", which a spokesperson insisted was not "condon[ing] violence" and deserved to be aired.

The corporation has announced significant cuts to the 200-strong BBC Arabic operation — the BBC's largest foreign language service — with its radio station being closed down and its digital arm being relocated to Amman, Jordan, from April.

Seventy of about 150 Arabic jobs will be lost at Broadcasting House.

A BBC spokesperson said: "The BBC regularly reminds staff of our editorial guidelines, whether that is in person, in meetings or via email. In addition, for the past three years we have run successful pilots to monitor Arabic output and others for language mistakes or typos. These are not editorial roles.

"The BBC publicly announced a wider restructure of all of its language services earlier this year, which will involve recruiting for new roles across many of our services."




BBC faces parliamentary probe over its coverage of Jews and Israel
Victory for JC as politicians announce inquiry into the broadcaster's reporting organised by a panel including an ex-BBC governor
https://www.thejc.com/news/news/bbc-faces-parliamentary-probe-over-its-coverage-of-jews-and-israel-4UH8ydDdoHK23dNIL7X0vt?reloadTime=1670524972005

A cross-party group of MPs and peers is launching an investigation into the BBC's coverage of Jews and Israel.

The probe, organised by a panel including an ex-BBC governor and a former minister in charge of the World Service, comes after a JC petition calling for an inquiry attracted over 10,000 signatures.

The panel of inquiry is to be chaired by Lord Carlile of Berriew KC, an ex-Liberal Democrat MP and the government's former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation.

The inquiry will gather evidence, publish a report and make recommendations. It will formally present its findings to the BBC next year.

The news comes as the JC reveals that the BBC is reforming its beleaguered Arabic service, employing Output Monitors to enforce standards and instructing editors to drop controversial pundit Abdel Bari Atwan, who has a track record of praising terrorism. The reforms have not been made public (see p6-7).

Former Labour minister Ian Austin, Baron Austin of Dudley, who was parliamentary private secretary to prime minister Gordon Brown, is secretary of the inquiry into the BBC.

The panel includes Tory peer Baroness Eaton, Labour peer Lord Turnberg and Baroness Fox.

Former BBC governor Baroness Deech and Lord Triesman, former Labour minister in charge of the World Service and former chairman of the English Football Association, also join the panel.

Last night, secretary Lord Austin said that the investigation was launched independently by a cross-party group of MPs and peers.

He said: "Our inquiry will be wholly impartial and will aim to offer expert guidance and recommendations for the corporation to address when it comes to antisemitism and Israel, the handling of complaints and the 'culture of defensiveness' identified by Ofcom."

The announcement follows Ofcom's ruling that the BBC failed to observe its own editorial guidelines when reporting an antisemitic attack on Oxford Street last Chanukah.

In the 12 months that followed, the JC exposed numerous examples of apparent editorial failings at the BBC, especially in its Arabic language output.

Our petition demanding an inquiry was launched online in October with a target of 10,000 signatures, which was reached last month.

It comes as Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan told the House of Commons on Tuesday that the BBC had "a great way to go" on "questions around BBC impartiality".

She added: "If we look at the antisemitism issue ... and the result that was concluded by Ofcom, there are concerns around BBC impartiality. "

The chair of the new probe, Lord Carlile, led a landmark independent inquiry into the use of restraint, solitary confinement and strip-searching in penal institutions for children in 2006.

He was the Government's anti-terror czar from 2001 to 2011 and was an independent reviewer on the 2015 Assessment on Paramilitary Groups in Northern Ireland.

Lord Carlile writes for the JC and has frequently spoken out against antisemitism. His role on the BBC inquiry is independent, voluntary and unpaid.

In a response to a letter from the inquiry's secretary informing him of the probe, provided to the JC by a BBC spokesperson, Director-General Tim Davie wrote: "I have followed the commentary on this topic.

"I look forward to seeing more details of what is proposed and I think that it's best to see this before I comment on how the BBC may be able to contribute. The BBC's journalism is rooted in our editorial values and standards, including our commitment to impartiality across our output.

"We are very proud of our journalism on antisemitism, including some of the examples that you have given; however, we are always open to feedback.

"As you know, the BBC is regulated on content standards by Ofcom.

"In addition, our Charter also requires us to act independently and it is the job of the BBC Board to uphold and protect that independence.

"When you have more detail on the work you propose to undertake, I would be happy to review."

The inquiry will consider evidence over a period of several months, starting next year. It will conclude with a report including recommendations that will be offered to the BBC.

JC Editor Jake Wallis Simons said: "Following the damning Ofcom report, it is gratifying that such senior parliamentarians have heeded our campaign for an inquiry, bolstered by our many disclosures of apparent institutional bias at the BBC.

"The BBC is a great national institution that is close to all of our hearts. I hope that this inquiry will help it restore its high standards across every part of its output."