Media boss Harding insists it is ‘untrue to say BBC is antisemitic’

The BBC is “not institutionally antisemitic”, former Times editor James Harding has said, as he discussed the difficulties of media coverage of the Gaza conflict at the Edinburgh TV Festival.

“I am Jewish, proudly so,” he told the audience. “I’m proud, too, to have worked for the most important news organisation in the world.

“The BBC is not institutionally antisemitic. It’s untrue to say it is.”

Delivered the James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the festival on Wednesday, Harding added:“It’s also unhelpful – much better to correct the mistakes and address the judgment calls that have been wrong, than smear the institution, impugn the character of all the people who work there and, potentially, undermine journalists in the field working in the most difficult and dangerous of conditions.”

Harding, now editor-in-chief at The Observer newspaper insisted the perception of a “political presence looming over the BBC” is a problem and the broadcaster needs to be “beyond the reach of politicians”.

The BBC has repeatedly criticised for a number of incidents in recent months which include breaching its own accuracy editorial guidelines and livestreaming the Bob Vylan Glastonbury set, where there were chants of “Death, death to the IDF (Israel Defence Forces)”.

Discussing the BBC’s coverage of the Gaza Harding appeared to take issue with Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy’s intervention.

He described how “newsrooms are in a furious argument with ourselves over the coverage of Israel and Gaza”, with the situation “very hard to view dispassionately”.

He added: “This summer, Lisa Nandy has weighed in.”

Harding said the Culture Secretary’s office insists she did not explicitly ask Samir Shah, the BBC chairman, to “deliver up” director-general Tim Davie’s resignation following the Bob Vylan incident, but “people inside the BBC were left in no doubt that was the message”.

Harding continued: “The place became paranoid about how the BBC itself would cover the story; people around him thought the political pressure would be too much.

“Whatever your view of the hate speech vs freedom of speech issues, an overbearing Government minister doesn’t help anyone.

“The hiring and firing of the editor-in-chief of the country’s leading newsroom and cultural organisation should not be the job of a politician. It’s chilling.

“Political interference – and the perception of a political presence looming over the BBC – is a problem, one that we’ve got too accustomed to.

“It looks likely to get worse. We need to get on with putting the country’s most important editorial and creative organisation beyond the reach of politicians now.”

Following the Glastonbury incident Nandy had said ministers expect “accountability at the highest levels” for the BBC’s decision to screen the performance.

The BBC  is also facing an Ofcom investigation into its documentary Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone after a review found it had breached the corporation’s editorial guidelines on accuracy.

The programme was removed from BBC iPlayer in February after it emerged the child narrator, Abdullah, is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture.

Harding also called for a complete overhaul of the BBC’s political and financial independence, including the end of a regime under which the corporation enters negotiations over the renewal of its charter every 10 years.

“It’s extraordinary, when you think about it, that if parliament chooses not to renew the royal charter in 2027, the BBC will cease to exist,” he said. “The BBC, which politicians can’t help but keep on a leash, is, in effect, on a 10-year rolling contract.”

Harding is co-founder of Tortoise Media, which acquired broadsheet newspaper The Observer in April.

Before he co-founded Tortoise Media, Harding was editor of The Times from 2007 to 2012 and was in charge of the BBC’s news and current affairs programming from 2013 up until the beginning of 2018.

He also co-presented On Background on the BBC World Service and wrote the book Alpha Dogs: How Political Spin Became A Global Business.

A spokesperson for the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said: “The Culture Secretary has been repeatedly clear that the role of the director-general is a matter for the BBC board. Any suggestion to the contrary is untrue.

“The BBC has itself acknowledged a number of serious failings in recent months, including the broadcasting of the Bob Vylan set at Glastonbury.

“It is entirely right that the Culture Secretary raised these issues with the BBC leadership on behalf of licence fee payers.”