Those who are familiar with the BBC’s penchant for uncritical and context-free amplification of claims that Israel targets journalists would not have been in the least surprised to find a filmed report headlined “Watch: Missile lands next to presenter during live report from Lebanon” on the BBC News website’s “Middle East” page on March 19.
The synopsis to that unnarrated report tells BBC audiences that:
“Footage from Russian state broadcaster RT has captured the moment a missile lands just a few feet from where its reporter was broadcasting in southern Lebanon.
RT, formerly Russia Today, said Steve Sweeney, its Lebanon bureau chief, and his cameraman had “miraculously survived” and were being treated in hospital.
The BBC has verified the footage.
There have been ongoing Israeli air strikes and ground operations in southern Lebanon.
That “more on this story” link takes BBC audiences to a live page which was active at the time. However, none of the entries on that live page provide any further details concerning that incident on March 19. On page ten of that live page readers do however find the following:
That warning was also cited in a written report published on the BBC News website on March 18 which now carries the headline “Israel destroys river bridges in southern Lebanon” and is credited to Wyre Davies, Samantha Granville and Jessica Rawnsley, with “[a]dditional reporting by Mallory Moench.”
“Israeli air strikes have destroyed two bridges over the Litani River linking southern Lebanon with the rest of the country, the military says.
It comes hours after the Israeli military said it would target crossings it alleged were being used by the Hezbollah armed group to move fighters and weapons. […]
Defence minister Israel Katz said the bridges were targeted on Wednesday in a ‘direct action against Hezbollah’s use of Lebanon’s state infrastructure to advance terrorist activity’. Hezbollah has not yet commented.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Israeli military warned civilians near the Litani crossings to evacuate.” [emphasis added]
In other words, the synopsis to the BBC’s filmed report about Sweeney fails to inform audiences that despite the IDF having already publicly announced that it would target crossings over the Litani river, the reporter employed by a Russian state media outlet chose to ignore the warning and to travel to the location nevertheless.
Moreover, on March 20 the BBC News website published a filmed report by BBC Verify titled “Israeli strike next to British journalist is not AI-generated” in which Merlyn Thomas tells BBC audiences that: [emphasis in italics in the original]
Thomas: “The video was recorded on Thursday [March 19th – Ed.] in southern Lebanon and Israel’s military told us it was targeting crossings on the Litani river which it says were being used by Hizballah to move fighters and weapons. It had issued warnings to people to move north of the Zahrani river before the strike.”
However, the BBC’s “anti-disinformation” and fact-checking department then goes on to promote Russian state propaganda:
Thomas: “But Sweeney and Russia’s foreign ministry say he and his crew were deliberately targeted.”
Thomas refrains from mentioning that Steve Sweeney is a former Morning Star journalist who has also written for the pro-Hezbollah outlet Al Mayadeen or that “his crew” was cameraman Ali Rida Sbeity, who has previously worked for Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV and the “Global Campaign to Return to Palestine” and who mourned “leader” Ali Khamenei on February 28.
Viewers then discover that BBC Verify is apparently of the opinion that the Israeli armed forces should share operational considerations with a foreign media organization.
Thomas: “We asked the Israeli military to clarify its decision making leading up to the strike but it didn’t provide any details. It did say it warned civilians to move away from the targeted area before it struck and that it does not target civilians or journalists.”
Earlier this month the outgoing BBC director general told readers of the Times that “[a]round the world, truth is under all-out assault” and claimed that the corporation is ready “to tackle disinformation”.
Having the BBC’s costly “anti-disinformation” department provide uncritical worldwide amplification for that already viral Russian propaganda would hardly seem to the be the best way to convince its funding public that the corporation has a “critical role” to play in providing “access to reliable information.”
This post originally appeared at CAMERA UK.