BBC chair Samir Shah has confirmed the BBC’s Arabic service is to be the subject of an independent review.
He told Times Radio: “The [BBC] Arabic service, we are looking at it, we’ve been examining it.
“I think this whole business of how we’ve covered Israel-Gaza is a proper thing to examine thoroughly, which is why we’re going to identify… we’re going to get hold of an independent figure to look at our coverage.”
It is understood that this “thematic review” of the standard of the BBC’s Gaza coverage will be drafted for presentation to the BBC Board, and will be “independent and published in full”.
The announcement comes two months after Shah told the Culture Media and Sport Committee that a thematic review was likely.
BBC Arabic has been at the centre of a string of scandals with its reporting on the Hamas-Israel conflict including a recent revelation that a freelancer used by the channel had posted in support of the burning of Jews “like Hitler did.”
