Board of Deputies statement on meeting with BBC Director General

The Board of Deputies met today with the leadership of the BBC, to discuss ongoing concerns relating to both the coverage and culture of the broadcaster.

While originally planned as an introductory meeting between new Board President Phil Rosenberg and BBC Director General Tim Davie, we took the opportunity to discuss the concerns from BBC employees, contractors and creatives, released last night.

President Phil Rosenberg expressed the Jewish community’s deep anxieties, given the breadth and depth of the allegations, about the possibility that the BBC is now institutionally antisemitic, in addition to institutionally-biased against Israel.

The group also raised longstanding misgivings in relation to the BBC’s refusal to describe Hamas as a terrorist organisation, the description of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as a “moderate”, Gary Lineker’s uncontained social media output, and the deep problems within BBC Arabic.

The Board’s delegation, which included Vice President Andrew Gilbert and Chief Executive Michael Wegier, said that inaction was not an option, and proposed the following five concrete steps as a basis for improvement:

1. Quarterly meetings between the Board President and BBC Director General over the coming period, to ensure progress on key issues.
2. ⁠An expedited form of complaints, so that the Board can fast-track the community’s most salient concerns, for faster action and comprehensive review at the regular high-level meetings.
3. ⁠An immediate instruction to news teams to ensure Hezbollah is described in at least similar terms to Hamas, as “designated as a terrorist organisation by the UK, the USA and Germany, among others”, and to ensure less slippage on the same descriptor for Hamas and its leaders.
4. ⁠Introductions to the key BBC decision-makers with responsibility for content, HR, diversity and the BBC’s new Jewish network to work on improvements.
5. ⁠Finding ways to celebrate Jewish staff and contractors within the organisation.

Tim Davie and the BBC said that they heard the strength of feeling, and would take away the Board’s proposals and respond in due course.

Following the meeting, Board of Deputies President Phil Rosenberg said, “We were absolutely clear to the BBC leadership about the unacceptable state of affairs, both in terms of content and coverage. We found the BBC team to be open and engaged and welcomed their commitment to consider our proposals. As ever, we will judge the Corporation by its actions.”