BBC chief defends Jewish journalist Raffi Berg after MP questions his impartiality
Row erupts in Commons hearing after Labour MP names BBC Middle East Editor, prompting accusations of antisemitic targeting
Tim Davie rebukes claim that BBC Middle East Editor Raffi Berg undermines confidence, sparking anger over antisemitic undertones
BBC Director General Tim Davie has defended Middle East Editor Raffi Berg after Labour MP Rupa Huq used a parliamentary hearing to suggest his role undermined public confidence in the corporation’s impartiality.
Speaking at the Culture, Media, and Sport Committee on Tuesday, Huq said: “It doesn’t inspire loads of confidence when some of your senior people are known as being very partisan, like Robbie Gibb, like Raffi Berg, I think, has been exposed on Twitter by some people.”
Davie immediately intervened to push back on the remark, telling MPs: “Can we just pull those apart for a second, because I do think it’s not fair. We’ve got reporters with a certain background who are doing excellent work, and forgive me, but I think it’s unacceptable when people are attacking individual reporters.”
The comments have provoked a sharp backlash from Jewish figures, that targeting Berg plays into antisemitic tropes about dual loyalty.
Journalist Sarah Deech said it was “disgraceful” for Berg to be described as “compromised,” noting he “happens to be Jewish and once wrote a book about a famous Mossad operation.”
Campaigner David Collier was more direct writing on X: “This morning you singled out a BBC journo, Raffi Berg, as partisan (proud Jewish man), saying his employment did not ‘inspire confidence’. Did I miss the part where you called out the 100s of partisan Muslim BBC journos, or is it only the Jew that bothers you?”
Veteran broadcaster John Ware also condemned the remarks, saying: “This poisonous campaign against Raffi Berg was started by the agenda journalist Owen Jones. The fact that Rupa Huq has so blindly bought into it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in her judgment. Unlike Jones, Berg is a grown-up journalist who understands the importance of due impartiality, fairness and impartiality.”
The incident comes just months after a senior UK designer at Toyota targeted Berg with antisemitic abuse on multiple X accounts, calling him a “filthy Zionist Jew,” a “rat,” and accusing him of “spreading state propaganda.” That employee, Piotr Klarowski, has since left Toyota’s mobility subsidiary, Woven by Toyota, following an internal investigation.
Jewish News has contacted both Huq and the Labour Party for comment.
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