Every staff member at the BBC must now complete a training course that warns against criticising Zionists and implies the use of the term is antisemitic.

 https://x.com/novaramedia/status/1998422411687932294

Novara Media

@novaramedia

Every staff member at the BBC must now complete a training course that warns against criticising Zionists and implies the use of the term is antisemitic. The new guidance, a section of which was shared on X by journalist Richard Sanders on Monday, says that “antisemites frequently use the word Zionist (or worse ‘Zio’), when they are in fact referring to Jews, whether in Israel or elsewhere”. It adds that “those claiming to be ‘anti-Zionist, not antisemitic’, should do so in the knowledge that many Jewish people consider themselves to be Zionists”. If these critics have no intention of offending Jewish people, “they should criticise ‘the Israeli government’ and not ‘Zionists’”, it says. The section does not mention that many other Jewish people oppose Zionism, or that supporters of Zionism, including far-right and evangelical figures, can be antisemitic. “Zionism involves the creation of an ethnically defined entity in a territory that, at the start of the process, was occupied almost entirely by people of a different ethnicity,” Sanders said in his post. Outgoing BBC director general Tim Davie – who resigned in November after what some observers called a rightwing “coup” led by Tory-linked figures – has told staff they have six months to finish the course. The BBC has been under pressure to show it is responding to complaints of anti-Israel bias by an advisor named Michael Prescott, who works for a PR firm with deep ties to the Conservative party. He was backed in his criticisms by BBC board member Robbie Gibb, a former director of the pro-Israel Jewish Chronicle newspaper. Gibb also advised on the founding of GB News. The bias claims stem from various incidents, including the fact that the BBC did not cut away from a live broadcast of rap duo Bob Vylan chanting “death, death to the IDF” at Glastonbury in June. But numerous BBC staff have accused the corporation of being heavily biased towards Israel throughout its genocide in Gaza. A study published in June by the Center for Media Monitoring found the corporation gives Israeli deaths 33 times more coverage per fatality than Palestinian deaths, and used “significantly more emotive language” for the former.

3:00 AM · Dec 10, 2025

·

10.9K

Views

https://x.com/novaramedia/status/1998422411687932294