BBC Refused to Correct Report That Echoed Israeli Smear Against Anas al-Sharif, Report

London (Quds News Network)- The BBC refused to correct a report that echoed Israeli smears against slain Palestinian journalist Anas al-Sharif, reported Novara Media. A leaked email shows editors flagged the error as a “grave editorial breach,” yet the claim remains published on BBC platforms.

The controversy centers on Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif. He was killed on 10 August in an Israeli airstrike on a tent marked “PRESS” near al-Shifa hospital in Gaza. Five other media workers were murdered with him.

In its coverage, BBC News claimed al-Sharif “did some work with a Hamas media team in Gaza before the current war.” Al Jazeera has strongly denied this.

Israel also claimed al-Sharif was a Hamas commander. Officials said he advanced rocket attacks and ran a cell. They posted unverified spreadsheets online as “proof.” They gave no explanation for killing his five colleagues in the same strike.

A leaked email, seen by Novara Media, shows BBC Global News asked for the line to be corrected. The email was sent to about 1,200 journalists on 18 August. It said the sentence should be amended to show the claim came from a single source and that Al Jazeera had denied it.

The email carried the signatures of BBC Global News, senior news editors, and deputy executives. Despite this, the BBC has left the false line unchanged. The article, last updated on 13 August, still presents the claim as fact. The same claim also appeared on the BBC liveblog and in BBC Verify coverage on TikTok.

A BBC employee told Novara Media that the failure to act reveals “a culture of intimidation, fear, and political control” inside the newsroom. The source said such a breach would have led to resignations in any other newsroom.

The case has wider implications. Al-Sharif’s name appeared weeks earlier on an Israeli “kill list” graphic targeting Al Jazeera staff. Israel’s military spokesperson Avichay Adraee repeatedly claimed he was a Hamas operative.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) warned two weeks before his death that these claims were meant to justify killing him. CPJ urged international protection for al-Sharif.

In August, new revelations showed Israel runs a secret military unit tasked with tying Palestinian journalists to Hamas or Islamic Jihad. The aim is to dampen global outrage over journalist killings.

This is not the first time the BBC has faced criticism for bias. A June report from the Centre for Media Monitoring found Israeli deaths received 33 times more coverage per fatality than Palestinian deaths. It said BBC output showed double standards and shut down discussion of genocide in Gaza.