Tim Davie, the director general of the BBC, has defended the broadcaster's impartiality during a session with MPs, citing 'profound polarisation in society' and 'storms of social media' as challenges. He stated that the BBC faces 'huge' pressure to deliver balanced coverage, particularly regarding the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Davie told the culture, media and sport committee that overall, the BBC's reporting on the conflict has been 'balanced and fair'. He acknowledged receiving 'significant feedback from either side' on coverage of South Africa's International Court of Justice submission alleging genocide by Israel, but maintained the corporation was 'pretty robust' in its reporting.
David Jordan, director of editorial policy, noted that differences in live coverage of the ICJ hearings for South Africa and Israel were due to the Post Office scandal hearing, and that news editors later acknowledged a mistake in not making them similar.
Regarding BBC Arabic staff retweeting pro-Hamas remarks, Davie described such tweets as 'unacceptable' and confirmed that action had been taken, though he could not guarantee it would never happen again.
Davie also defended the removal of the 'far right' label from a report on Reform UK, stating, 'I don't think far right is the right label, full stop.' He urged caution in using such descriptors for parties with significant support.
