Pressed further about saying the hospital had been “flattened”, he said: “Oh yeah, well I got that wrong because I was looking at the pictures and what I could see was a square that appeared to be flaming on all sides and there was, sort of, a void in the middle. I think it was a picture taken from a drone.
“So, you know, we have to piece together what we see and I thought, ‘It looks like the whole building has gone’.
“That was my conclusion from looking at the pictures and I was wrong on that, but I don’t feel particularly bad about that. It was just the conclusion I drew.”
Mr Bowen said sometimes the corporation had to “rely on things people say” as well as looking “at the multiplicity of videos” that are released before making a judgement on what to report.
In the first story about the hospital on the BBC on October 17, correspondent Jon Donnison suggested Israel was behind the blast. Speaking shortly after 8pm on BBC News, he said: “It’s hard to see what else this could be, really, given the size of the explosion, other than an Israeli airstrike or several airstrikes.”
First BBC reports prompted complaints
Mr Donnison’s comments prompted the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) to complain to the corporation.
Tim Davie, the director-general of the BBC, referred the complaints to the corporation’s executive complaints unit (ECU), which considered them in light of their “editorial standards of accuracy and impartiality”.
However, the ECU ruled that Mr Donnison had not offered a “definitive judgement” but accepted that it was “not consistent with the BBC’s standards of due accuracy to offer any view about responsibility for the incident at a point where so little reliable information was available”.
Hadar Sela, co-editor of CAMERA UK, told The Telegraph: “Anyone who was under the impression that the BBC had learned any lessons from its hasty assignment of blame to Israel for the explosion at the Al-Ahli hospital on October 17th will understand from Jeremy Bowen’s statements that they were sadly wrong.
“Bowen’s arrogant declaration that he ‘doesn’t regret one thing’ about his misreporting the hospital building as ‘flattened’ and his claim that he ‘didn’t rush to judgement’ even though he amplified unverified claims from third parties is sad testimony to the standard of BBC journalism on display throughout this conflict.”
The BBC declined to comment.
William Turner is a seasoned U.K. correspondent with a deep understanding of domestic affairs. With a passion for British politics and culture, he provides insightful analysis and comprehensive coverage of events within the United Kingdom.
