The BBC’s mission to provide accurate and impartial news is never more important than during breaking international crises, but it has failed once again in its reporting of the US-Israel military operation against the Iranian regime, says CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis).
Regular listeners to Radio 4 and BBC News will have noticed that the Iran war is being framed as an unreasonable act of aggression by the US and Israel, which may be flouting international law. The BBC fails to portray the build-up to the current war, despite Iran having committed acts of terror against the US and Israel since 1979, and developing an arsenal to wipe out both nations.
The Shia Islam theology is to create an Islamic world to welcome the Mahdi, its messiah figure. CAMERA has shared specific examples of a lack of impartiality and accuracy.
Recent history is also ignored; as well as funding Hamas’s 7 October genocidal attacks, the IRGC created Hezbollah, which, like Hamas, has been firing rockets into Israel for decades. CAMERA has shown how the BBC selected interviewees who would reinforce their view.
In the first two days of the war, BBC Radio 4 and the World Service gave a platform 13 times to Professor Foad Izadi of the University of Tehran and a leading mouthpiece of the Iranian regime. Izadi was allowed to call Israel ‘genocidal’ and insisted that it was Mossad agents who were killing civilian protesters,not the IRGC. Izadi also uttered antisemitic slurs.“… Israelis are not interested in peace. They are interested in war. They started this war. They attacked Iran in June. They are attacking Iran again, and it’s very unfortunate that we have this genocidal regime trying to engage in another genocide…You know, when you are dealing with genocidal people, you have to always expect these type of criminal activities. Yes, we are dealing with Netanyahu, we are dealing with Trump, we are dealing with the Epstein class. They engage in this type of activities”.
The linking of Israel to Jeffrey Epstein is difficult to see as anything other than antisemitic. The latest iteration of the lust libel particularly popular in Nazi Germany, it links the Jewish state to Epstein’s sexual depravity, despite zero evidence of any connection between Epstein and Israel, and comments from the disgraced financier himself that: “I do not like Israel AT ALL”.
As the news broke on 28 February on BBC World Service Radio, guest Foad Izadi made allegations about the death toll at a school in Minab (later shown to be by an Iranian rocket) which presenter Paul Henley accepted without contest. Izadi: “The new leader will make sure that there is enough cost to the Epstein class – the people who like to rape little American girls and like to kill little Iranian girls like this last 160 school children on the first day of attacks.
”However, two days later on 2 March on the Global News Podcast, Anna Foster did not give Professor Izadi the same easy ride and said clearly that it was the regime, not Mossad agents, who had killed protesters. Izadi retorted that this was “BBC propaganda”
A tale of two conflicts – BBC double standards on Iran and Gaza.
Since it was established early that the US and Israel were operating jointly on strikes in Iran, the BBC has been reporting extremely carefully on the situation on the ground.
Labour MP Apsana Begum was asked for her reaction on Radio 4’s Today Programme: “I think if we look at the UK’s involvement in terms of enabling and facilitating the genocide in Gaza, I think it’s incredibly important that there are discussions and debates through the parliamentary mechanisms…, I think, given the track record of the Labour Government in particular, as I say, in terms of the genocide in Gaza and the continued support and facilitation of it from the UK’s perspective, I think it’s really important that we do have debates and discussions in Parliament.” Apsana Begum spoke of the UK “enabling the genocide in Gaza”, rather than giving an opinion on the Iran war. Listeners were not informed that Begum is extremely popular with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, such that they awarded her “full marks” along with vehement anti-Zionist Zarah Sultana in their ‘Vote Gaza’ campaign in 2024, an attempt to place Gaza as a main issue in the British elections.The language conflict:
How the BBC minimises Israeli civilians
The BBC uses carefully chosen language to minimise the suffering of Israeli civilians and the actions of Arab Muslim terrorists, while maximising Israeli actions in order to present an asymmetric view of the conflict and ascribe blame and responsibility to Israel. This is the language used by Lucy Williamson on Radio 4’s Today programme of 4 March to describe the situation in Lebanon (emphasis added):“This is a return to full conflict and we’ve seen that, as you were saying day by day, overnight, Israel continued hitting targets in Beirut and the Beqaa Valley, there are reports of at least five people killed in those strikes and it’s also this morning put out new evacuation orders for some 16 Lebanese communities it says need to evacuate urgently, which is, you know, obviously a sign of imminent strikes there. Hezbollah, for its part, has also kept firing rockets and drones over the border, including last night, one fired towards the Central Tel Aviv region.” Notice how Hezbollah fires rockets over the border, while Israel strikes targets in Beirut and the Beqaa Valley. The language is passive for Hezbollah and active for Israel.
Laura Kuenssberg used similar language on 8 March (emphasis added) to an Israeli representative: “But many people in many democracies around the world think having a framework where there are rules for democracies to obey still matters, and you have been expanding this war, you have attacked Lebanon again, hundreds of people have been killed and thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes, why does Israel have the right to start dropping bombs on another sovereign country beyond Iran?” When the Israeli explained why the IDF had had to tackle Hezbollah again, Kuenssberg ignored the reasons and insisted, “But hundreds of civilians are suffering in Lebanon”.
The only active participant in the widening of the conflict is Israel, and the only civilians impacted are Lebanese.
The final word goes to President Trump, who attacked the BBC’s coverage of the US war on Iran, calling it “corrupt, fraudulent news”. Meanwhile Tousi TV’s daily live broadcasts now have 1.5 million subscribers. Mahyar Tousi, an Iranian in London, tells his viewers not to believe the legacy media or social media.
For detailed analysis of the media’s reporting on the Middle East, see camera-uk.org or email christina@camera.org
More information is at www.israelfactcheck.com
Key Facts About Iran-Israel Tensions Understanding the Iran-Israel Conflict: A Historical Timeline
1. Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution declared Israel’s destruction as a foundational goal, not a response to Israeli actions.
2. Iran established Hezbollah in 1985 specifically to attack Israeli civilians, decades before recent conflicts.
3. Iran funded over 130 terror attacks against Israeli civilians worldwide between 1979-2000, including synagogue bombings.
4. Iran’s nuclear programme began covertly in the 1980s, forcing Israel into defensive responses to prevent nuclear genocide.
5. Iran arms Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis with 150,000+ rockets aimed at Israeli population centres.
6. Iran directly attacked Israel with 300+ missiles and drones in April 2024, escalating from proxy warfare.
7. October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre was coordinated with Iranian intelligence and funded by Iranian weapons programmes.
8. Israel’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities target weapons programmes, not civilianinfrastructure or population centres.
9. Iran’s regime explicitly calls for Jewish genocide while Israel targets military threats, not Iranian civilians.
