BBC editor subjected to ‘vile and sinister’ antisemitic abuse sparked by Owen Jones report
Raffi Berg weighing legal action after investigation into BBC coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas triggered wave of targeted harassment
Jenni Frazer is a freelance journalist
The man at the centre of “vile and sinister” attacks by Guardian writer Owen Jones has been subjected to a torrent of antisemitic abuse, Jewish News has learned.
Jones wrote a long-form “investigation” into the BBC’s coverage of the war between Israel and Hamas, which was published by the online outlet, Drop Site News. In it, Jones claimed to have spoken to “13 current and former staffers, who mapped out the extensive bias in the BBC’s coverage”; he said that the focus of their complaints, all made anonymously “for fear of professional retribution”, was the BBC News Online Middle East editor, Raffi Berg.
According to Jones, Berg “sets the tone for the BBC’s digital output on Israel and Palestine”, adding that the journalists to whom he spoke “allege that internal complaints about how the BBC covers Gaza have been repeatedly brushed aside. “‘This guy’s [Berg] entire job is to water down everything that’s too critical of Israel’,” one former BBC journalist said”.
Jones claimed: “In addition to what they see as a collective management failure, journalists expressed concerns over bias in the shaping of the Middle East index of the BBC news website. Several allege that Berg ‘micromanages’ this section, ensuring that it fails to uphold impartiality. ‘Many of us have raised concerns that Raffi has the power to reframe every story, and we are ignored,’ one told me.
“BBC journalists also point to Tim Davie, the director general of the BBC, and Deborah Turness, the CEO of BBC’s news division, as standing in the way of change. Both are aware of the outrage against Berg, the journalists said.
“‘Almost every correspondent you know has an issue with him,” one claimed. ‘He has been named in multiple meetings, but they just ignore it.’”
A source close to Berg said the Middle East editor has described Jones’ investigation as “vile and sinister”. Berg told the source that Jones had “triggered the biggest torrent of antisemitic abuse against him which he had ever experienced in his life”.
He is now understood to be considering legal action.
The source told Jewish News that Berg said he had received abuse across social media — and even by email. Messages supporting Jones picked on his [Berg’s] Jewish identity according to Berg, the source said. Berg found the abuse deeply unpleasant but was “resilient”, the source went on.
One commenter on Twitter/X, using the name Kootus, wrote: “That’s right, the best way to get an unbiased opinion on the genocide in Palestine is to put it into the hands of a Jew.”
Several others maintained that Berg “needed to lose his job”; but another former BBC journalist posted: “I worked with Raffi Berg for years. He’s a brilliant journalist and author, and a great colleague.
“The attempted poor hit job on him — with such ‘revelations’ that as Mid East online editor ‘micromanaged’ the Mid East index (his actual job) — is laughable and embarrassing.”
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