The BBC has been accused of ignoring a second memo concerning bias in its coverage of the war in Gaza.
Sir Vernon Bogdanor, who penned the memorandum, has insisted Director-General Tim Davie should step down “with immediate effect” from his position amid an escalating crisis scandal at the corporation.
The distinguished academic, a constitutional expert, claims the BBC had “ignored internal reports” that documented allegations of journalistic distortion and prejudice.
In his report, Sir Vernon outlined several accusations of bias and “inaccuracy” in both the BBC’s Arab service and the “mainstream” channel.
He sat down with the BBC’s director of news content, Richard Burgess, twice in May 2024, where he delivered the memo stating his concerns.
Sir Vernon raised questions about the broadcaster’s refusal to label Hamas as a terrorist organisation and its acceptance of the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry’s death toll, which he said published “suspiciously precise figures”.
The esteemed academic, formally of the international advisory council of the Israel Democracy Institute, stressed the BBC must “distinguish how many amongst the casualties are combatants from Hamas”.
In more specific cases, he highlighted the incorrect blaming of Israel for an explosion in a Gaza hospital soon after the October 7 attacks and accusations that Israel has carried out “summary executions”, a story which was later retracted.
The BBC has been accused of ignoring a second memo concerning bias at the organisation
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Sir Vernon insists “nothing happened” following his meeting with Mr Burgess, despite the BBC saying that it had issued a response.
He said: “The outcome is that many (BBC viewers) believe Israel committed genocide and deliberately caused a famine, two accusations which are at least debatable.”
Following his accusations, the constitutional expert called for immediate change at the helm of the corporation.
“In my view, Tim Davie should immediately resign and the Government should institute an inquiry into the organisation of BBC news… Leaders of the BBC seem to have ignored internal reports pointing out distortion and bias,” Sir Vernon told The Telegraph.
GB News has approached the BBC for comment.
Sir Vernon Bogdanor also called on Director-General Tim Davie to step down
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The eminent academic’s comments pile further pressure on Mr Davie, who is facing intense scrutiny from many quarters over claims of BBC bias.
Last week, an 8,000-word letter from Michael Prescott, a former standards adviser to the corporation, was sent to members of the BBC board concerning bias at the organisation was leaked.
Within the report was the claim that the BBC’s Panorama programme had edited a speech by President Donald Trump in a documentary broadcast the week before last year’s US election.
The programme allegedly spliced clips together from sections of his speech on January 6, 2021, to make it appear he told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to “fight like hell”.
Mr Trump instead insisted that he would walk with his supporters “to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard”.
The 19-page dossier concluded that Panorama had made Mr Trump “say things [he] never actually said” by “mangling” footage from the start of his speech with a segment from nearly an hour later.
Following the disclosure, the White House has accused the BBC of producing “fake news”.
Karoline Leavitt, the US President’s press secretary, also said British taxpayers were being forced to “forced to foot the bill for a leftist propaganda machine”.
