A senior member of the BBC News team openly admitted to a significant error made by the corporation in its coverage of the immediate aftermath of a deadly explosion at a hospital in Gaza City. The incident, which occurred on Tuesday, shocked the world and led to conflicting claims from both Hamas and the Israeli military.
Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group, pointed fingers at an Israeli air strike as the cause behind the devastating attack on the Ahli Arab Hospital. In contrast, the Israeli military countered these allegations, asserting that Palestinian militants had misfired a rocket, leading to the tragic incident.
During the Media Society’s Reporting the Israel-Hamas Conflict event held on Thursday, Jonathan Munro, the deputy chief executive of BBC News, admitted to the mistake made during the network’s live reporting. Munro acknowledged that the BBC’s “language wasn’t quite right” during their coverage of the event, indicating a recognition of the need for greater accuracy and responsibility in their reporting of such sensitive and critical situations.
Munro said: “The correspondent [Jon Donnison] was wrong to speculate about the cause of the explosion of the hospital. At no stage did he actually say it was caused by the Israelis … but nonetheless, when the impression is left that we’ve speculated, [it] is important to correct that which we’ve done.”
He added: “Somewhere along the line, human beings are going to make a mistake on a bit of output and when it gets magnified and is used as an example of getting things wrong, it’s a very uncomfortable place to be.
“And of course, it shouldn’t have happened and we need to make sure that we’re doubling down on … [keeping] our language absolutely accurate.”
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