BBC chiefs set to assessment Middle East protection after high-profile Gaza warfare errors

The BBC will review its entire Middle East coverage after admitting major reporting errors in its portrayal of Israel during the war in Gaza.

The Corporation pledged to investigate wide-ranging claims of bias in a 13-page dossier published on Friday.

Allegations of bias were brought into sharp focus last month after a memo written by independent adviser Michael Prescott was leaked to the Press.

It claimed that the BBC appeared to have ‘a desire always to believe the worst about Israel’ and that BBC Arabic in particular seemed to ‘minimise Israeli suffering and paint Israel as the aggressor’.

This was despite Hamas triggering the war in Gaza with its October 7 terrorist attack.

In response, the broadcaster’s Director of Editorial Complaints and Reviews, Peter Johnston, has produced a report setting out the BBC’s response to claims of bias.

He admitted a series of damaging mistakes made by the Corporation in its reporting, including one claim that the International Court of Justice had found a ‘plausible cause of genocide’ in Gaza.

There were also ‘issues’ surrounding the number of deaths reported as well as a ‘wrong’ question on Newsnight concerning 14,000 babies supposedly at risk of starving to death within 48 hours.

In the documentary, Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone, the BBC failed to disclose the narrator Abdullah, 13, (pictured), is the son of Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture

There was a TV report suggesting that Israeli soldiers had buried hundreds of bodies in mass graves, when this was done by Hamas.

And an article on Gaza medics failed to say Hamas was accused of operating from their hospital. 

Mr Johnston said the BBC later corrected its errors and had accepted it was wrong to use supposedly independent freelance journalists whose social media posts indicated they were pro-Hamas and anti-Semitic.

 He said the Corporation’s Editorial Guidance and Standards Committee (EGSC) had already started rolling out a new training programme for all BBC News Arabic editorial staff.

Mr Johnston said the EGSC and the BBC Board were planning a ‘full editorial review of coverage of the Middle East’ as ‘the most effective mechanism to fully evaluate our coverage of such a difficult story and to learn any lessons’.

The report will likely serve the BBC’s Global Director of News, Jonathan Munro, a further blow, as he earlier this year dismissed suggestions of bias and praised the ‘exceptional’ journalism of BBC Arabic.

Mr Johnston’s latest appraisal has also reviewed the BBC’s approach to controversial subjects such as gender identity and colonial history.

On gender, he said the BBC News style guide has been updated, reminding journalists that ‘the concept of gender identity is contested by some’ and that they should not use the term ‘assigned at birth’ to signify gender.

The BBC has admitted making major reporting errors in its portrayal of Israel during the war in Gaza. Pictured: Rubble in Gaza City on December 19, 2025

They are also urged to avoid phrases such as ‘trans child/children’ and ‘gender-affirming care’.

On history, Mr Johnston said the BBC accepted its response to complaints by History Reclaimed, a group of academics, was ‘not acceptable or appropriate’.

They had accused the BBC of presenting a distorted version of Britain’s colonial past in some programmes and made ‘some sensible recommendations’.

In its response, the BBC said that ‘cherry-picking a handful of examples… does not constitute analysis’.

Mr Johnston suggested the EGSC review the BBC’s history output.