BBC risks becoming ‘Hamas propaganda mouthpiece’

[Pelican Press 0]

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BBC risks becoming ‘****** propaganda mouthpiece’

The former director of BBC Television has warned that the broadcaster risks becoming a propaganda mouthpiece for

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.

Danny Cohen said BBC coverage of the

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had repeatedly drawn an “appalling false equivalence” between the release of Israeli hostages held in terrible conditions by ****** and the freeing of ************ prisoners by Israel.

Mr Cohen said the BBC had also underplayed the suffering endured by the

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, while at the same time emphasising the privations it says were endured by the Palestinians prisoners.

He also accused the corporation of failing to mention that many of the ************ prisoners were guilty of terror crimes, including bombings and knife attacks.

The report coincided with the latest round of

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which came after fears the ceasefire deal could collapse.

In his report analysing the BBC’s coverage of the release of hostages taken by ****** on October 7 2023,

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stated: “In their rush to gloss over the undeniable torture, starvation and beatings that hostages have endured and their determination to highlight claims of poor conditions in Israel’s jails, the BBC is repeatedly drawing offensive false equivalence between victims of war crimes and hundreds of convicted violent offenders.

“The BBC is at risk of becoming a ****** propaganda mouthpiece. They have repeatedly given a free pass to terrorists who have committed violent racist *******. It will be very hard for many in the Jewish community to ever forget it.”

Mr Cohen says the BBC has underplayed the suffering endured by the Israeli hostages

In his analysis of the BBC’s coverage of the ceasefire deal’s arrangement for Israeli hostages to be released in exchange of prisoners, Mr Cohen claimed that the broadcaster’s reporters had failed to point out the crimes committed by jailed ************ fighters.

He said that instead, the BBC had gone out of its way to highlight the scenes of joy at the men being reunited with their families and their apparently emaciated appearance after years spent in Israeli jails.

During its coverage of the release of nearly 200 ************ prisoners on Feb 8 the BBC failed to describe any of them as terrorists, according to the report, even though half had been serving life sentences for *******.

Mr Cohen said a BBC News website story a few days earlier did not mention that a freed ****** member it quoted expressing joy at his release had been held for his part in a 2018 gun attack which killed two civilians.

The report also accused the BBC of focusing on Palestinians freed from administrative detention without trial, while making only “passing reference” to the 733 convicted for violent offences who had been freed.

These include ****** member Mohammad Abu Warda, who has been serving 48 life sentences for organising a 1996 suicide bus bombing which killed 45 people.

Critics pointed out that in the first two hours of coverage of Saturday’s hostage release on BBC News, ****** personnel were referred to as “armed militants”, “gunmen”, “members” and “local health officials” but not as terrorists and neither was the group described as a proscribed terrorist organisation.

During its coverage of the releases the BBC has had to apologise on a number of occasions for describing the ************ prisoners as “hostages”.

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************ prisoners gesture from a bus after being released by Israel on Saturday – Hatem Khaled/Reuters

Relatives of those killed by ************ gunmen have joined criticism of the BBC’s coverage.

Among them is Hillel Fuld, whose brother Ari was killed by 17-year-old Khalil Jabarin, one of the freed prisoners, during a knife attack at West Bank shopping centre in September 2018.

Mr Fuld wrote on X: “There is zero attention being paid to the families whose lives these ‘prisoners’ ruined. Let’s not forget who these people are. They are murderers who destroyed families.”

Mr Cohen’s report also accused the BBC of downplaying the ordeal suffered by the Israeli hostages since they were captured by ****** gunmen on October 7.

He stated: “While BBC reporters and presenters have frequently claimed ************ prisoners have emerged looking thin and questioned conditions in Israeli jails, their coverage of the

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released last month focused on how ‘healthy’ they looked.

“Presenters talked about hostages smiling and waving to the crowd, making little mention of the horrors they had endured, even though the treatment of women hostages by ****** was well known.”

Mr Cohen said in one case presenters failed to mention the horrific circumstances in which

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had been kidnapped, with no reference to the footage of her being dragged into a ****** truck, covered in blood and her hands tied – images which became symbolic of the horror of the Oct 7 attacks.

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Hostages Iair *****, 46, Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36, and Sasha Troufanov, 29, were released on Saturday after 498 days in exchange for 369 ************ prisoners held in Israeli jails – Ramadan Abed/Reuters

The report pointed the finger at a number of senior BCC correspondents, including Laura Kuenssberg and Sebastian Usher, its Middle East regional editor, for equating the ordeal suffered by ******’s hostages with what they claimed in reports were “appalling” and “particularly hard” conditions in Israeli jails.

During Saturday’s coverage Mark Lowen, a BBC correspondent, said about the hostages: “They are then reunited with their families, it’s all very emotional of course and then also later on that day you have similarly emotional scenes later on in Gaza where Palestinians who have been held in Israeli jails are released…

“The most serious offenders will be deported away from Gaza but there will be joy and heartbreak there as well from the families as they see their loved ones and for those still waiting for others to be released in the coming weeks of the ceasefire deal.”

Mr Cohen said: “Taking hostages is a war crime. Torture, ******* abuse and starvation of those hostages is a war crime. There is no equivalence between the horrors hostages have endured and the administrative detention of Palestinians or the decades long imprisonment of murderous and violent terrorists.”

He added: “I strongly urge the BBC to radically rethink its coverage, to stop drawing these offensive comparisons and remind its audience that ****** is not providing ‘well-ordered’ hostage releases, but once again showing the world what a barbarous and brutal terror group looks like.”

The BBC has rejected the report’s findings, pointing to its recent coverage of the trauma suffered by the freed hostages. Sources said the corporation corrected and apologised for any mistakes in terminology made during live broadcasting.

A BBC spokesman said: “We have studied this report and we do not accept its premise. The examples it gives are of the BBC’s factual reporting and observation of events, and of appropriate challenge in interviews.

“The BBC has reported extensively on the Israeli hostages and their experiences, including interviews with their families. It has been clear about the Palestinians’ status as prisoners, and has reported on their crimes and also on the fact that some have been detained without charge.”

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#BBC #risks #****** #propaganda #mouthpiece

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