BBC to investigate after reporter ‘liked’ pro-Hamas posts
The BBC will investigate staff social media use after a journalist who reported claims that Israeli soldiers beat medics in Gaza “liked” pro-Hamas posts.
The BBC Arabic reporter Soha Ibrahim helped on a story relating to allegations that Palestinian medical staff were blindfolded, beaten and stripped by Israeli security personnel.
It has now been reported that the journalist “liked” social media posts claiming that Israel was “genocidal” and that Hamas are “freedom fighters”.
The BBC has said it treats breach of its social media guidelines extremely seriously, and will “investigate each case in detail”.
The corporation has, however, stated that it “stands by” the report about alleged Israeli abuses of Palestinian medical staff that Ms Ibrahim worked on in her role as a “senior journalist for Digital Daily Output”.
Ms Ibrahim liked a post comparing Hamas to ‘freedom fighters’
Ms Ibrahim liked a string of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, relating to the Israel-Hamas conflict, including a post immediately after the October 7 attacks which likened Hamas terrorists to “freedom fighters“.
She liked a video explaining Marxist thinker Frantz Fanon’s justification for people to use violence to oppose oppression, and another claiming that Israel was aiming to carry out “massacres”.
The London-based journalist also liked several posts claiming the Israel was carrying out a “genocide”, and one which criticised her own employer, the BBC, for not properly covering the bombing of Gaza.
Ms Ibrahim liked a post from Jeremy Corbyn defending pro-Palestine marches taking place across the UK, in which the former Labour leader stated: “Protesting against the mass slaughter of civilians is not a threat to democracy.”
She also liked a post about a “Queer March for Palestine” in Cardiff which insisted there would be “No Genocide Under Our Rainbow”, and added: “Protesters strongly reject Israel’s ‘pink washing’ of its onslaught in Gaza.”
The BBC has said it is looking into claims of a potential breach of social media guidelines which require strict impartiality from staff.
A spokesman for the broadcaster said: “As we have said previously, we take allegations of breaches of our social media guidance very seriously and we took urgent action to investigate each case in detail.
“We do not comment on individual staff matters, however, if we find breaches we take the appropriate action.”
‘We stand by our journalism’
Camera, an organisation which seeks to monitor media coverage of Israel, has raised concerns about BBC staffing.
A spokesman for the group claimed that there are “BBC staff members who cover the war for the corporation while their personal social media accounts clearly indicate that they are not impartial observers”.
A statement from the group added that it was time “to ask what happened” to “quality journalism the BBC purports to produce in exchange for the British public’s licence fee payments”.
While concerns have been raised about staffing, the BBC has insisted on the accuracy of the story Ms Ibrahim helped with, which was headlined “Gaza medics tell BBC that Israeli troops beat and humiliated them after hospital raid”.
A BBC spokesman said: “We stand by our journalism. Those who have read our story will know the BBC has been transparent in telling audiences where and how information is corroborated and attributed, and where this has not been possible.
“We have provided multiple first-hand accounts, named independent sources, shared visual evidence, and included rights of reply throughout, working to the highest standards of journalism.”
Ms Ibrahim has been contacted for comment.
