BBC ‘not institutionally antisemitic’, says Observer’s editor-in-chief

The BBC is “not institutionally antisemitic”, the Observer’s editor-in-chief said following a row over the broadcaster’s coverage of the conflict in Gaza.

James Harding said the perception of a “political presence looming over the BBC” is a problem and the broadcaster needs to be “beyond the reach of politicians”.

The BBC has been criticised for a number of incidents in recent months which include breaching its own accuracy editorial guidelines and livestreaming the Bob Vylan Glastonbury set, where there were chants of “Death, death to the IDF (Israel Defence Forces)”.

Following the incident, UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said ministers expect “accountability at the highest levels” for the BBC’s decision to screen the performance.

Mr Harding discussed the difficulties of covering the Gaza conflict when he delivered this year’s James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Wednesday.

‘Furious’

He described how “newsrooms are in a furious argument with ourselves over the coverage of Israel and Gaza”, with the situation “very hard to view dispassionately”.

The Observer chief said this is true for all media organisations, particularly the BBC, and it is “about as difficult as it gets in news”.

Mr Harding said: “This summer, Lisa Nandy has weighed in.”

He said the Culture Secretary’s office insists she did not explicitly ask Samir Shah, the BBC chairman, to “deliver up” director-general Tim Davie’s resignation following the Bob Vylan incident, but “people inside the BBC were left in no doubt that was the message”.

Mr Harding said: “The place became paranoid about how the BBC itself would cover the story; people around him thought the political pressure would be too much.

“Whatever your view of the hate speech vs freedom of speech issues, an overbearing Government minister doesn’t help anyone.

“The hiring and firing of the editor-in-chief of the country’s leading newsroom and cultural organisation should not be the job of a politician. It’s chilling.

“Political interference – and the perception of a political presence looming over the BBC – is a problem, one that we’ve got too accustomed to.

“It looks likely to get worse. We need to get on with putting the country’s most important editorial and creative organisation beyond the reach of politicians now.”

The broadcaster is also facing an Ofcom investigation into its documentary Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone after a review found it had breached the corporation’s editorial guidelines on accuracy.

The programme was removed from BBC iPlayer in February after it emerged the child narrator, Abdullah, is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture.

‘Untrue’

Mr Harding said the BBC is not antisemitic.

“I am Jewish, proudly so,” he said. “I’m proud, too, to have worked for the most important news organisation in the world.

“The BBC is not institutionally antisemitic. It’s untrue to say it is.

“It’s also unhelpful – much better to correct the mistakes and address the judgment calls that have been wrong, than smear the institution, impugn the character of all the people who work there and, potentially, undermine journalists in the field working in the most difficult and dangerous of conditions.”

The UK Government and the BBC have been asked for comment.

Mr Harding is co-founder of Tortoise Media, which acquired broadsheet newspaper The Observer in April.

Before he co-founded Tortoise Media, Mr Harding was editor of The Times from 2007 to 2012 and was in charge of the BBC’s news and current affairs programming from 2013 up until the beginning of 2018.

He also co-presented On Background on the BBC World Service and wrote the book Alpha Dogs: How Political Spin Became A Global Business.