Hours after clarification, BBC News website promotes false Hamas claim
On the morning of November 2nd the BBC News website published a report by Jack Burgess titled “Polio vaccinations to restart in north Gaza”. Roughly an hour later, that headline was amended to read “Polio vaccinations restart in north Gaza”.
On the afternoon of the following day, November 3rd, the report’s headline was again changed to read “Gaza polio vaccinations to resume after WHO reports attack on clinic” and readers were told that: [emphasis added]
“A polio vaccination campaign in north Gaza is expected to resume on Sunday, a day after the World Health Organization (WHO) said six people, including four children, were injured following a strike on the Sheikh Radwan clinic.
The agency did not say who was responsible for the attack but an official from Gaza’s civil defence agency told AFP news agency it was carried out by an Israeli quadcopter. Israel said it is investigating but does not believe it was responsible.
Unicef, the UN’s children’s agency which is helping to lead the vaccination rollout, described the strike on the Sheikh Radwan clinic as “another example of the indiscriminate strikes on civilians”.”
Burgess failed to inform BBC audiences that “Gaza’s civil defence agency” is run by the Hamas terrorist organisation which started the current war and that it has been the source of numerous inaccurate claims in the past.
Some seven hours later, on the evening of November 3rd, the report was again amended to include the following paragraph:
“In a post on X on Saturday, WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said the centre was struck “while parents were bringing their children to the life-saving polio vaccination in an area where a humanitarian pause was agreed”.”
The “WHO chief” did indeed put out such a post on the evening of November 2nd and – as reported by local media outlets – he received a reply from the IDF’s International Spokesman which noted that “Contrary to the claims, an initial review determined that the IDF did not strike in the area at the specified time.”
In other words, over fifteen hours after the IDF Spokesman had clarified that Israeli forces did not carry out that “strike on the Sheikh Radwan clinic”, the BBC nevertheless decided to promote second hand Hamas claims concerning “an Israeli quadcopter” along with the talking points of two UN agencies.
As readers may recall, in August of this year the BBC News website gave uncritical amplification to false Hamas claims of a polio epidemic in the Gaza Strip:
BBC NEWS PROMOTES UNFOUNDED HAMAS HEALTH MINISTRY CLAIM
Five subsequent BBC reports clarified (as does this latest one by Burgess) that only one case of Polio – the first in 25 years – has been discovered in the Gaza Strip to date. As was noted here on September 5th:
“On August 12th CAMERA UK submitted a complaint to the BBC concerning Tom Bennett’s uncritical amplification of Hamas’ July 29th propaganda claim that the Gaza Strip is a “polio epidemic zone”, requesting the removal of that disinformation promoted by a terrorist organisation. Beyond an August 20th email informing us that it would take more time to address our complaint, we have not heard back from BBC Complaints.”
On September 10th BBC Complaints informed us that it was unable to respond to our complaint due to having run out of time and so that ‘epidemic’ disinformation still appears online.
As we see, the BBC continues to uncritically promote unverified claims made by various Hamas departments such as its health ministry and civil defence agency, even after they have been shown to be groundless.
In recent weeks the BBC News website has begun adding a standard mantra to its reports concerning the Gaza Strip, including this one by Burgess:
“Israel does not allow international journalists from media organisations, including the BBC, independent access to Gaza, making it difficult to verify facts on the ground.”
That, of course, is no excuse for the promotion of inaccurate claims and deliberate disinformation put out by a terrorist organisation, particularly when clarifications have already been provided.
Hadar Sela was born in the north of England and has lived in Israel for over three decades. She has a special interest in the influence of the media on the British public’s perceptions of the Middle East and the Islamist networks operating in the UK and has written pre-emptive reports on several anti-Israel campaigns, including the flotillas and the Global March to Jerusalem in March 2012. Hadar’s work has been published in the Jerusalem Post, The Algemeiner, The Commentator, MERIA Journal and at Harry’s Place, among others.
