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The National
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
I'm a senior BBC journalist. I'm tired of the Israel-first approach
IT seems as though the criticism around the BBC's coverage of Israel and Gaza is getting louder every week. On Monday, I spoke to a senior journalist who works for the World Service to find out more about how staff are feeling. Last week, the BBC decided to announce it would no longer be streaming 'high-risk' shows at Glastonbury after being called out for broadcasting a Bob Vylan set which featured the frontman leading the crowd in an anti-IDF chant. This led to journalists calling the corporation 'censorious' and 'cowardly'. A documentary on the destruction of Gaza's healthcare system was also shown last week on Channel 4 after the BBC had opted not to air it, following concerns it may create 'a perception of partiality that would not meet the high standards that the public rightly expect'. This was despite the fact the BBC commissioned the documentary, which was produced by Basement Films. READ MORE: How UK media are covering up British spy flights for Israel The BBC World Service journalist – who wished to remain anonymous – said the move made on the Gaza: Doctors Under Attack documentary in particular 'crossed a new line', with reporters and staff working for the broadcaster reaching boiling point over the 'struggle' that seems to exist in trying to fight for in-depth and truthful coverage of Palestine. Having worked for the BBC for nearly a decade, the journalist said he has increasingly witnessed bosses over the past year 'buckling to pressure' from political powers over Israel and Gaza, and he now feels the BBC is 'bending over all the time to defend the wrong people' with an 'Israel-first' approach. As a journalist, you feel it is your raison d'etre to tell the truth and fight whatever powers that be to make sure people know the truth. But the journalist detailed to me how difficult this is becoming at the BBC when it comes to Israel and Palestine news. 'The bar that they set for every single tiny detail is so much higher [for Palestine stories] than if you were to make a piece about October 7 and you were interviewing Israelis about what happened then,' he told The National. 'For me, there is always the scope to be making brilliant work on Palestine within the BBC but it's just a struggle. BBC director-general Tim Davie has been accused of 'buckling under pressure' on Israel and Gaza coverage (Image: Andrew Milligan) 'You have to really want it, and most people are put off by the level of bureaucracy that you have to go through.' He went on: 'News really struggles, I think, to frame it [Israel/Gaza] in a way that's truthful. We have very much an Israel-first approach. 'Whatever airstrike happens and kills 60 people, it's always 'what do Israel say about why they did it or who they were targeting?'. As long as Israel keeps saying that it doesn't ever target civilians, that's how we frame them. 'But at what point do we take more notice of what they do, rather than what they say?' The dropping of Gaza: Doctors Under Attack by the BBC came fresh off the back of controversy over the How to Survive a Warzone documentary – a programme the BBC removed from iPlayer after it was revealed it featured the son of a Hamas official. The BBC argued the film couldn't go out while a review into the How to Survive a Warzone documentary was going on. READ MORE: Anas Sarwar 'must cut ties' to Tony Blair Institute amid Gaza plan row Speaking about how Gaza: Doctors Under Attack was binned, the journalist said he believed director-general Tim Davie and BBC News CEO Deborah Turness were constantly 'buckling to political pressure' and airing the documentary would have helped to boost their reputation at a time when it is waning. 'With this medics doc [Gaza: Doctors Under Attack], that was, for me, a new line that was crossed,' he said. He went on: 'Tim [Davie] and Deborah [Turness] are constantly buckling to pressure. 'The ironic thing is they do it to avoid bad headlines, but the headlines that have been created by censoring and blocking an absolute vital documentary about Gaza's healthcare system being demolished [are so bad], they've created a worse situation for themselves. 'If they had the courage to stand up to those pressures and say we're going to put this out because it's true – it's not about being impartial, it's the truth – then they would be in a better position. 'The BBC is such a respected institution – increasingly less so – but they would have gained some respect back." Channel 4 showed a documentary on Gaza originally commissioned by the BBC (Image: PA) The journalist said he had a 'big gripe' with how the Israel Defense Forces was often treated as a reliable source, adding that he did not feel the coverage of Israel/Gaza at the BBC had been 'guided by the rules of war and international law'. He went on: 'The BBC seems out of touch on this [Israel/Gaza]. It seems like it's bending over all the time to defend the wrong people, it's bending over backwards to do PR for a foreign army that is committing atrocities." Last week, more than 100 BBC journalists called for Robbie Gibb, the controversial BBC board member for England, to be removed from the role over his impact on the broadcaster's reporting. READ MORE: Tony Blair's staff took part in 'Gaza Riviera' project Gibb's position on the BBC editorial standards committee is 'untenable' as his well-known political affiliations mean the BBC is not reporting on Israel 'without fear or favour', a letter co-ordinated by BBC insiders says. Gibb, who was Theresa May's director of communications in No 10 and an early editorial adviser to the alt-right broadcaster GB News, led the buy-out of the Jewish Chronicle in 2020 and remained a director of Jewish Chronicle Media until August 2024. In a collaboration with Declassified UK, The National revealed on Monday how the UK mainstream media have not carried out a single investigation into the extent, impact or legal status of the more than 500 surveillance flights over Gaza the RAF has carried out since December 2023. Asked why he thought the BBC hadn't looked into the matter, the journalist said he did not believe there were enough tenacious staff members willing to pursue such a story that could cause them grief. 'It's a massive organisation full of individuals and you need individuals that pitch it and have the tenacity to fight for the story and you need it to get green lit by a brave editor, though they shouldn't have to be brave,' he said. "So if you don't have those individuals pushing for it, it's not going to appear out of thin air. At the moment, I don't think there are enough people like that at the BBC who are willing to put their neck on the line and do stories that are going to cause themselves grief and their editors' grief." A BBC spokesperson said: 'Throughout our impartial reporting on the conflict we have made clear the devastating human cost to civilians living in Gaza. We will continue to give careful thought to how we do this. 'We believe it is imperative that our journalists have access to Gaza, and we continue to call on the Israeli government to grant this.'
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
BBC radio available outside UK after Sounds switch-off
The BBC has said its radio stations will continue to be available for people outside the UK to listen to live after BBC Sounds access is restricted for international listeners. BBC Sounds will close for listeners outside the UK on 21 July 2025. International listeners will be able to listen to the BBC's radio stations through links on the station directory online, the BBC said. This includes the BBC's national stations - BBC Radio 1, Radio 2, and Radio 3, 6Music, 1Xtra and Asian Network, Radio 4Xtra and 5Live - all the stations in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales and every local radio station in England. The BBC announced in April that it had delayed blocking BBC Sounds app for audiences outside the UK. That delay came after a decision made by the corporation meant listeners outside the UK would only be able to access Radio 4 and the World Service via a new audio section on the BBC website. Questions had been asked about what this would mean for listeners in the Republic of Ireland who would be unable to use the internet to access Northern Ireland-based stations BBC Radio Ulster and Radio Foyle. The BBC said listening to BBC audio programming on non-BBC platforms would not be affected by the change. It also said a range of English, Welsh and Gaelic language podcasts were available on and third-party podcast services. BBC Sounds is the online home of BBC radio. People can listen to live radio streams, on demand programmes, podcasts, audiobooks and music mixes. It can be accessed via the Sounds website or its dedicated app. People can also listen on many smart speakers and internet radio devices. The BBC said UK users who went on holiday outside the UK for a short time would still be able to use the BBC Sounds app. A BBC spokesperson said: "BBC Sounds will now be available on the same basis as BBC iPlayer. "Both services are restricted to a UK domestic audience, reflecting rights and associated considerations. "BBC Radio Ulster/Foyle will remain more widely available via
BBC News
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
BBC Sounds: Radio stations will remain available outside UK
The BBC has said its radio stations will continue to be available for people outside the UK to listen to live after BBC Sounds access is restricted for international Sounds will close for listeners outside the UK on 21 July listeners will be able to listen to the BBC's radio stations through links on the station directory online, the BBC includes the BBC's national stations - BBC Radio 1, Radio 2, and Radio 3, 6Music, 1Xtra and Asian Network, Radio 4Xtra and 5Live - all the stations in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales and every local radio station in England. The BBC announced in April that it had delayed blocking BBC Sounds app for audiences outside the delay came after a decision made by the corporation meant listeners outside the UK would only be able to access Radio 4 and the World Service via a new audio section on the BBC had been asked about what this would mean for listeners in the Republic of Ireland who would be unable to use the internet to access Northern Ireland-based stations BBC Radio Ulster and Radio BBC said listening to BBC audio programming on non-BBC platforms would not be affected by the also said a range of English, Welsh and Gaelic language podcasts were available on and third-party podcast services. What is BBC Sounds? BBC Sounds is the online home of BBC can listen to live radio streams, on demand programmes, podcasts, audiobooks and music can be accessed via the Sounds website or its dedicated app. People can also listen on many smart speakers and internet radio devices. The BBC said UK users who went on holiday outside the UK for a short time would still be able to use the BBC Sounds app. A BBC spokesperson said: "BBC Sounds will now be available on the same basis as BBC iPlayer. "Both services are restricted to a UK domestic audience, reflecting rights and associated considerations. "BBC Radio Ulster/Foyle will remain more widely available via
Spectator
02-07-2025
- General
- Spectator
Tim Franks goes in search of what it means to be Jewish
It's hard to classify this thought-provoking book – part memoir, part philosophical exploration, but mostly a deeply researched family history. And what a history that is. Tim Franks, born in 1968, has been a BBC reporter for almost two decades, and now presents Newshour on the World Service. So he knows how to tell stories about other people. But the events here concern himself, and many of them are heartbreaking, as he searches for an answer to the question of what comprises identity and to what extent we are products of our ancestors. Franks is descended from rabbis, including one who played a part in keeping Bevis Marks, the oldest continually functioning synagogue in Europe, at its present site in London; another went to lead the congregation in Curaçao, then a Dutch colony, and by the 18th century one of the most important Jewish communities in the New World. He is also a reporter who is prepared to take risks. While working in Venezuela, chasing a story of corruption ahead of parliamentary elections, he found himself on the back of a motorbike taxi on a busy highway in Caracas when his helmet flew off. He not only gripped harder but recited the Sh'ma, a key Jewish prayer. He survived and reported the story, thus perfectly blending his identity as a Jew and a journalist. He is full of questions, curiosity being the essential quality in his profession, as he takes us through the centuries – from Portugal, where he goes to discover 'the oxymoronic story of Jewish Lisbon' and on to Constantinople, Curaçao, Cuba, Amsterdam, Lithuania and Auschwitz. Family history starts in this book with Ester Orobio Furtado, Franks's five times great-grandmother who sailed for Amsterdam in the early 18th century to escape the gruesome torture of the auto-da-fé inflicted on Jews during the Spanish Inquisition. Along the way he introduces us to a vast swathe of characters, including Hannah Arendt, George Eliot and Jean-Paul Sartre (not relations), as well as Benjamin Disraeli (who was). 'Cousin Diz,' as Franks calls him, rejected Judaism but mythologised his Jewishness. Pages are devoted to explaining why Disraeli indulged the oft-repeated but erroneous additional name of Villa Real given to his ancestors. It meant that his was no ordinary Jewish stock – rather, as Franks writes, consommé juif. But disproving it matters, since accepting it downplays the role of England as a nation of fluidity and opportunity, not just for Disraeli, prime minister, but also for Franks, BBC presenter. But if Disraeli was exceptional, the story of another relation is included here precisely because he was not. David Van Ryn, Franks's great-uncle, moved from the Netherlands to Canada and then returned to Europe to fight in the first world war, where he was killed in 1915, aged 21. He is referenced because he was just one of thousands of young men slaughtered. Equally, 20th-century Amsterdam proved no safe haven for large numbers of Franks's forebears, descendants of Ester from 'Jewish Lisbon', who were killed by the Nazis. Only one in four Dutch Jews survived the Holocaust. Those who might be expecting here an expansion of Franks's 2010 broadcast From Our Own Correspondent – in which he memorably discussed his role and other people's perceptions of him as the BBC's Middle East correspondent as both a Jew and a journalist – to examine the Middle East today, will be disappointed. But he sees that experience as 'the founding solipsism' of this book, and his three-and-a-half years in the region as deeply seared into his identity. He is unflinching in describing the horror he witnessed at first hand when, for example, Dr Izzedin Abu-Eleish took him around the remains of his Gaza home to see his dead daughters' hair glued in clumps on the ceiling. To the question 'How far does a journalist go to convey the trauma of a devastated father?', all the way is the response. When Franks talks of the periodic cataclysms that have befallen Jews through the ages he is unwilling to say whether that is the fate of Jews or simply their experience. Don't expect neat answers to this question, as he has already warned readers that he much prefers to interrogate the answers of others than to proffer his own. This is partly rooted in what he calls his 'humourless and utter devotion to the idea that the BBC is better off when its staff don't mouth off'. Franks concludes, as of course he must, that his identity is both Jewish and journalist. No need to choose. The one makes him better at being the other.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Syria government says women must wear burkinis at public beaches
Syria's Islamist-led interim government has decreed that women must wear burkinis - a swimsuit that covers the body except for the face, hands and feet - or other "decent" clothes at public beaches and swimming pools. The regulations, issued by the tourism ministry, were "aimed at enhancing public safety standards and preserving public decency", Syrian state news channel Al-Ikhbariyah al-Suriyah reported. Private beaches, clubs and pools, as well as hotels with more than four stars, are exempt, the directive said. Women often dress modestly on public beaches in Syria, but some women do opt for more Western styles of swimwear. The new government previously pledged to govern inclusively. Under the new directive, beachgoers and visitors to public pools must wear "more modest swimwear", specifying "the burkini or swimming clothes that cover more of the body". The decree added that women should wear a cover-up or loose clothing over their swimwear when they move between swimming areas. "Travelling in swimwear outside the beach without appropriate cover is prohibited," it said. Men should also wear a shirt when they are not swimming, and are not allowed to be bare-chested outside swimming areas. The statement said "normal Western swimwear" was generally allowed in exempted places "within the limits of public taste". More generally, people should wear loose clothing that covers the shoulders and knees and "avoid transparent and tight clothing", the decree added. The directive did not say whether those who fail to follow the rules would be penalised or how the rules would be enforced. But it did say lifeguards and supervisors would be appointed to monitor compliance on beaches. It also included other safety regulations around pools and beaches. Reacting to the new rule, one woman from Idlib in the north-west of the country told the BBC's World Service that, while she could see both sides of the argument, "I do think there is a positive to this, from a moral and respectful point of view". Celine said: "Some people and families don't feel comfortable seeing or wearing too much exposed skin and I believe that is a valid perspective." But another woman, Rita, who lives in the capital, Damascus, said she was "not comfortable" with the new rule, "especially as we are not used to such laws". "In the coastal area, different ladies from different religions all have been going there and until now, we wore what we wanted," she said. "Religious people could avoid those in bikinis. But this law makes us scared of where to go." She added: "We have no problem with the burkini itself, but it's a problem with the concept that the government are controlling this." In December last year, Islamist rebel forces led by Ahmed al-Sharaa toppled Bashar al-Assad's regime, bringing years of civil war to an end. Since then, al-Sharaa, now the country's interim president, has promised to run the country in an inclusive way. In an interview with the BBC shortly after he took power, he said he believed in education for women and denied that he wanted to turn Syria into a version of Afghanistan - which has severely curtailed women's rights. In March, Sharaa signed a constitutional declaration covering a five-year transitional period. The document said Islam was the religion of the president, as the previous constitution did, and Islamic jurisprudence was "the main source of legislation", rather than "a main source". The declaration also guaranteed women's rights, freedom of expression and media freedom. Rubio warns Syria could be weeks away from 'full-scale civil war' Trump expected to meet Syrian leader after announcing he will lift sanctions
