Key claims made in the leaked internal BBC memo

LONDON – The BBC’s director-general and head of news resigned on Nov 9 following mounting accusations of editorial bias at the British broadcaster, including in the editing of a speech by US President Donald Trump.

The publicly funded broadcaster has faced growing scrutiny after the Daily Telegraph published details from a leaked internal memo by a former standards adviser. The report highlighted shortcomings in the BBC’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict, transgender issues, and its handling of Mr Trump’s remarks.

Key findings from the memo, which was written by Mr Michael Prescott to the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Board, include:

Trump programme

Mr Prescott said that an edition of the BBC’s flagship Panorama show broadcast a week before the US election – Trump: A Second Chance? – “seemed to be taking a distinctly anti-Trump stance”, noting that critics of Mr Trump far outnumbered his supporters.

The programme

spliced together two separate excerpts

from one of Mr Trump’s speeches, creating the impression that he was inciting the January 2021 Capitol Hill riot, he said.

Mr Trump was shown telling his supporters that “we’re going to walk down to the Capitol” and that they would “fight like hell”, a comment he made in a different part of his speech. He had actually said his supporters would “cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women”.

Israel-Hamas coverage

Mr Prescott noted that several contributors to the BBC’s Arabic service had selectively covered stories critical of Israel.

On one occasion, the BBC’s main English-language news site published 19 separate articles about the hostages taken by Hamas on the day of the attack, while BBC Arabic published none. By contrast, every article critical of Israel that appeared on the BBC News website was also featured on BBC Arabic.

The memo also highlighted that while BBC Arabic often ran the same stories as the BBC’s English-language website, there were significant differences in tone, headlines and emphasis, with coverage generally more critical of Israel.

Mr Prescott also criticised the BBC for allegedly misreporting the proportion of Palestinian women and children killed by Israeli military actions, as well as for inaccurately portraying the likelihood of children facing starvation under Israel’s aid blockade.

Transgender coverage

Mr Prescott claimed that stories raising “difficult questions” about transgender issues were often overlooked, even when they had been widely reported and debated by other media outlets. He also noted that some features presented the transgender experience in an overly one-sided manner, lacking sufficient balance and objectivity.

The memo further highlighted that the BBC failed to cover certain stories, including a case in which a group of nurses sued their employer for permitting biological males to use their changing room.

Immigration issues and historians

Mr Prescott noted that the BBC sent few push notifications about illegal migrants or asylum seekers to its seven million news app users, even as less significant stories received extensive coverage.

The memo also said that producers of four BBC programmes with historical content favoured non-expert academics who offered quotable sound bites on racism and prejudice, resulting in oversimplified and distorted narratives about British colonialism, slavery and their legacy.

Racism

Mr Prescott wrote in his memo that the BBC “fell too easily for putting out ill-researched material that suggested issues of racism when there were none”. He cited a report claiming that people living in areas with a high proportion of ethnic-minority residents paid more for car insurance, even though road accident and crime rates were similar.

He noted that the reporting and commentary ignored other factors that can influence insurance costs, relied on outdated and unsuitable data, and featured only one guest who supported the claim.

The Association of British Insurers declined to appear, and its statement, which provided crucial context, was selectively quoted. The report was later taken down. REUTERS