Gaza: BBC Coverage

Lord Birt Excerpts

Tuesday 4th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

The unfortunate matter at stake here is that the whole issue of shining a light has been muddied by really unacceptable failures in this instance. Clearly, the BBC has a duty to provide accurate and impartial news and information. The voices of people affected in war zones are particularly powerful, but the public really have a right to be able to trust that BBC content is accurate. In this instance, there have been questions over governance, whether the guidelines are strong enough in the first place and whether the oversight has been sufficient.

[Lord Birt (CB)]

My Lords, as with every major organisation, people working for the BBC make mistakes, and mistakes must be exposed when they happen, and the lessons learned. But does the Minister agree that the reason why the BBC, as she mentioned already, is the single most respected news organisation in the whole world, from Scunthorpe to Sudan, is that almost everyone who works for it is wholly committed and is doing their best to be fair, accurate and impartial?

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

The noble Lord makes the really important point that, when we get these incidents, it can be hugely demoralising for people who are working hard to get that accurate, impartial information. There are two issues. We have to make sure that we understand exactly what went wrong, and the BBC is undertaking a thorough investigation into that. As I mentioned previously, Ofcom and the Secretary of State are very cognisant of the issues and want answers, as I know your Lordships’ House will. But that does not and should not detract, and we need to make sure that we find out the answers and move on, because that accuracy and impartial voice of the BBC in relation to news is critical, not least at this really uncertain time.