BBC “imposed restrictions” on its journalists during coverage of the Gaza war, UK Court hears

A British court has heard evidence that the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) “misled” its audience during the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.

The evidence was presented as part of documents in a case being heard by a UK employment tribunal, in which five journalists of Arab origin accuse the BBC of discrimination and of unfairly dismissing four of them for refusing what they described as racist and discriminatory practices within BBC Arabic service.

The five complainants are Ahmed Rouaba, of Algerian origin; Dima Odeh, of Syrian origin; Nahed Najar, of Palestinian origin; and Mohamed El-Ashiry and Amer Sultan, both of Egyptian origin. The claimants are represented in the case by John Barnes from Albertson Solicitors. This is the first case of its kind brought by this number of journalists from the Arabic of the BBC Service of World Service against the long-standing news corporation.

Veteran journalist Amer Sultan, who is of Egyptian origin and one of the five claimants, accused BBC management of unfair dismissal. He said this was partly due to his reporting of what he described as “serious breaches” of the BBC editorial guidelines in the early weeks of the Israeli war on Gaza, which began on 7^th October 2023.

During last court session, it was revealed that Sultan—who worked for 17 years on the BBC’s Arabic website and television—had reported examples of breaches of the Guidelines to BBC World Service management.

According to case documents, Liliane Landor, the former director of the World Service, held what were described as “listening sessions” to understand what went wrong and to discuss the reasons behind mistakes made by the BBC at the start of the war. These mistakes had sparked widespread criticism among BBC journalists and in political and media circles in Britain and the Middle East.

According to Sultan, Landor was “disturbed by what she heard” and said: “We misled the audience.” He added that another manager tried during one of the listening sessions to defend the breach of editorial guidelines, but Landor promised to “conduct an investigation.” Sultan said that until he left the BBC in early October 2024, he had not been informed of the outcome of any such investigation, or whether one had even been conducted. Landor resigned about six months after holding the listening sessions.

The Egyptian journalist had been a senior correspondent for BBC Arabic television and covered major events such as US elections, Egypt’s 25^th January 2011 revolution, elections in Iran, Israel, and Afghanistan, and the conflict in the Balkans. He also served as a TV news bulletin editor.

In his testimony, Sultan gave another example relating to claims circulated that Hamas fighters had beheaded children and raped women during the ALAQSA flood.

He said that website editors refused his proposal to produce an expander and chronology report examining the misleading Israeli narrative about the events of October 7, without bias or adopting any party’s version, so that readers could form their own views based on verified and documented information.

The BBC’s defence representative did not deny Sultan’s statements but attempted to question the significance of the complaint about breaches of editorial standards. She argued that what happened “does not constitute a whistleblowing as what happened didn’t breach of the BBC’s legal obligations.” However, Sultan responded that “misleading” the public is a “clear violation” of those obligations for a service funded by British taxpayers. He added that the issue concerns “the public interest,” noting that if it were not serious, Landor would not have said she would investigate it.

Sultan has repeatedly called on BBC management to disclose records of the “listening sessions” so that the court and the public can understand what took place, but the defence representative did not respond.

The hearing continues.