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Middle East Eye
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
BBC faces new questions over board member Robbie Gibb's Gaza coverage influence
The BBC is facing new questions over the role pro-Israel board member Robbie Gibb may have played in the broadcaster's Gaza coverage, with a report in Prospect Magazine alleging he may have held discussions with the BBC's director general and chairman about the network's reporting. Alan Rusbridger, the editor of Prospect Magazine and a former editor at the Guardian, wrote on Wednesday that the BBC had told him Gibb had not recused himself from any discussions "about the BBC's coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict". Rusbridger wrote that he further asked the BBC whether Gibb had any conversations about the Gaza: Doctors Under Attack documentary, and received a "somewhat cryptic response". A BBC spokesperson reportedly said that "[Gibb] had no formal role in any of the discussions or decisions about whether the BBC should run the film - I'm afraid I have no way of knowing whether BBC board members have had discussions about various live issues affecting the BBC but as I've said before, the decisions about the film were taken by BBC News." Rusbridger concluded that it was "reasonable to assume, I think, that Gibb may have had informal discussions." New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Middle East Eye reached out to the BBC for comment on Rusbridger's claims but did not receive a response by time of publication. Earlier this week, more than 400 cultural figures signed a letter calling on Gibb to resign from the board over fears he is harming the broadcaster's credibility. A range of filmmakers, actors and journalists - including Miriam Margolyes, Alexei Sayle, Juliet Stevenson, Mike Leigh and William Dalrymple - signed the letter, which raised "concerns over opaque editorial decisions and censorship at the BBC on the reporting of Israel/Palestine". Gibb's role 'untenable' Gibb was part of a consortium that bought out the Jewish Chronicle outlet in 2020 and still declares on the BBC website that he has a 100 percent holding of the outlet. '[The] inconsistent manner in which guidance is applied draws into focus the role of Gibb, on the BBC Board and BBC's editorial standards committee," said the letter this week, which was signed by 111 BBC journalists. They also referenced the BBC's decision not to air Gaza: Doctors Under Attack over alleged concerns about its impartiality. Media figures demand resignation of pro-Israel BBC board member Robbie Gibb Read More » "We, the undersigned BBC staff, freelancers and industry figures are extremely concerned that the BBC's reporting on Israel and Palestine continues to fall short of the standards our audiences expect," reads the letter. "We believe the role of Robbie Gibb, both on the board, and as part of the editorial standards committee, is untenable. We call on the BBC to do better for our audiences and recommit to our values of impartiality, honesty and reporting without fear or favour." The BBC has faced criticism from pro-Palestinian campaigners over its coverage of the war in Gaza since October 2023. They say they it has unfairly and disproportionately featured Israeli perspectives on the network. A report released by the Centre For Media Monitoring last month said that the BBC gave Israeli deaths 33 times more coverage per fatality and ran almost equal numbers of humanising victim profiles, despite 34 times more Palestinian deaths. Last year Rusbridger, who has previously investigated the Jewish Chronicle's ownership, called into question Gibb's position on the BBC's editorial standards committee. 'I can't see how he can possibly sit on that committee and portray himself as a beacon of impartiality, sitting in judgement on BBC journalists,' Rusbridger told LBC Radio.
Telegraph
06-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Copy Reform and you'll get eaten, Kinnock tells Starmer
Lord Kinnock, the former Labour leader who now sits in the House of Lords, said the Prime Minister had been 'not well advised' on how to tackle the rise of Nigel Farage's party. He suggested that attempts to ape Reform's language were 'mortally stupid', and advised the party that 'achievement' in Government was the best way to counter the Reform threat. Lord Kinnock told Prospect Magazine: 'Appeasers get eaten. It's very important to remember that if people are offered two versions of a particular political brand, they will always choose the genuine one.' He added: 'If a progressive party is trying to use the vocabulary of isolationism or segregation or division, it's the same. It is silly to do that. It isn't evil, but it is very, very silly – maybe mortally stupid.' The former Labour leader's intervention is the latest development in growing tensions within the Labour Party about how to tackle the rising tide of Reform support. His remarks came after the Prime Minister announced measures to tackle immigration and a tightening of the system, warning that without such a move the UK risked becoming an 'island of strangers'. The speech followed Labour 's drubbing in the local elections last month, where Reform won hundreds of council seats and seized the parliamentary seat of Runcorn and Helsby. The comments were supported by some figures in Red Wall seats, which are under greater threat from the surge in Reform support, but denounced by many Left-wing Labour MPs. Lord Kinnock said: 'I think there are elements in and around the Labour party encouraging that as a way of responding to Reform, and they are fundamentally, 100 per cent, 22-carat wrong.' He added: 'I don't fear Reform, but I do think we ought to fight them rather harder and with more purpose.' The peer told the magazine: 'The playbook is familiar to anybody who studied the 1930s in Europe and or indeed in the United States of America. 'I'm not saying we are in any sense slipping towards some kind of fascist system… But those factors and the way in which they generate division and envy and isolationism – they're unhealthy features of any democracy.' On how to beat Reform, he said: 'Nothing replaces achievement in government, [concentrating on] what people regard to be the primary issues on the agenda, which is to say: health, decent jobs, affordable costs and wages that can meet those costs.' Lord Kinnock led the Labour Party before famously losing the 1992 election to Sir John Major despite the polls being in his favour, leading to another five years of Conservative rule. The pro-Europe politician said that decisions to use phrases such as 'island of strangers' and not to scrap the two-child benefit cap were based on post-Brexit preconceptions of the electorate. He said: 'Certainly there were elements among the advisory team who had an overreaction to the reason for, and the consequence of, the Brexit referendum vote. I think that overreaction has lasted through till now. 'I don't think that they are reactionary individuals. I don't think they're frightened individuals. I think they have overreacted to a misinterpretation of what happened in 2016.' The former leader went on to suggest that Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, should consider a wealth tax, citing as an example a two per cent levy on assets above £10 million. 'Property taxation in our country, asset taxation, is outdated,' he added, as he urged the party's senior figures to be bolder. 'There's a degree of steadiness from Keir which, on a good day, is very, very reassuring. However, that can translate into a paralytic caution. That means that this government, much as I love them – and they know I do – has got a kind of audacity deficit.' Lord Kinnock appeared at Sir Keir's victory speech on the morning of July 5, when the Prime Minister led the party to a landslide win.
