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Review Commentary: Is the BBC biased?

The Corporation and the coverage of the 2006 Israeli—Hezbollah war

University of Bedfordshire, UK, ivor.gaber{at}beds.ac.uk

Emily Seymour

Goldsmiths, University of London, UK, emily.seymour{at}tiscali.co.uk

Lisa Thomas

University of Bedfordshire, UK, lisaythomas{at}yahoo.co.uk

In the light of the findings of the BBC's 2006 impartiality review of their coverage of the Arab—Israeli conflict, and the fact that most of the accusations of bias against the BBC continue to come from pro-Israel lobbyists, this research sought to investigate whether their claims of anti-Israel bias during the BBC's reporting of the 2006 Israeli— Hezbollah war could be validated. Using ITV News as a control group, these claims were measured against the BBC's revised editorial guidelines for covering the Middle East. The article demonstrates that, whilst certain aspects of the coverage were problematic, BBC journalists broadly adhered to the Governors' revised editorial guidelines, and covered the conflict more or less impartially — if there was any bias it was towards, rather than against, Israel. ITV News coverage was more problematic but still achieved a significant degree of impartiality.

Key Words: BBC • bias accusations • Hezbollah • Israel • journalism • Lebanon • news frames • war

Journalism, Vol. 10, No. 2, 239-259 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1464884908100603


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