BBC investigating Tim Willcox for ‘misleading reporting’

The BBC has said it is investigating news reporter Tim Willcox after a complaint from a member of the Jewish community about his coverage of the solidarity rally in Paris on 11 January in the aftermath of the terror attacks, writes Justin Cohen.

Willcox was interviewing an Israeli woman about anti-Semitism in the French capital when he countered that Israel’s critics “would say the Palestinians have suffered hugely at Jewish hands as well”. 

The BBC confirmed the nature of the complaint was an allegation that Willcox’s reporting was “misleading in that it linked the Paris killings in a kosher supermarket with events in the Middle East” and that the “question displayed bias against Israel”.

In an official response to the complainant, Andrew Bell, the director of the Editorial Complaints Unit, said: “We are happy to investigate it.”

He confirmed that the BBC’s editorial guidelines stipulated that the channel’s portrayal of people “should avoid careless or offensive stereotypical assumptions” and said he would confirm the outcome of the investigation by 23 February.