Six BBC reporters taken off air as probe launched over pro-Palestine tweets

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The BBC has taken six reporters in the Middle East off air and launched an investigation into posts on social media that seemed to support activities of Hamas against Israel.

The broadcaster has strict rules on impartiality, which cover its reporters’ activities on social media. Posts that were tweeted or liked by BBC News Arabic reporters, including those based in Egypt and Lebanon, appeared to support Palestine or criticise the position of Israel.

The BBC has now taken all six off air, though they have not been formally suspended, pending an urgent investigation into their activities as BBC employees.

In a statement, the BBC said: “We are urgently investigating this matter. We take allegations of breaches of our editorial and social media guidelines with the utmost seriousness, and if and when we find breaches we will act, including taking disciplinary action.”

All the posts have been taken down, but media reports suggest that one reporter liked a message that appeared to describe Hamas, the Palestinian militant movement that attacked Israel nine days ago, as “freedom fighters.”

The move to name the journalists by some media outlets has raised concerns over their safety while the investigation is carried out.

The broadcaster has already faced questions over its position on Hamas from politicians demanding changes to its editorial policy on calling the group militants rather than terrorists.  

Last week, culture secretary Lucy Frazer called on BBC boss Tim Davie to review its policy on Hamas given the UK government has already identified the group as terrorists.

The BBC said its reporting had explained that Hamas was proscribed as a terrorist organisation by many western governments, including the UK, and featured contributors who had described them as terrorists.

But the broadcaster has insisted that as an editorially independent organisation, its role is to explain what is happening so that the public can make their own judgments. 

The Guardian newspaper has also said it would not renew the contract of its veteran cartoonist Steve Bell, who last week complained on X after a cartoon featuring Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was pulled.

He criticised the decision on X, saying “it is getting pretty nigh impossible to draw this subject for the Guardian now without being accused of deploying ‘antisemitic tropes’.”

The Guardian said: “The decision has been made not to renew Steve Bell’s contract. Steve Bell’s cartoons have been an important part of the Guardian over the past 40 years — we thank him and wish him all the best.”

Separately, the BBC said a member of BBC News Arabic team in Tel Aviv was stopped and assaulted at the end of last week by Israeli police in a vehicle marked as media. “Journalists must be able to report on the conflict in Israel-Gaza freely,” the broadcaster said.