New BBC Arabic editor not enough to solve its catalogue of errors, MPs told

Bringing in a new editor for the BBC Arabic service will not be enough to address its problems with antisemitism and impartiality, according to Michael Prescott, the former BBC standards adviser who wrote a highly critical memo about the service.

Prescott told the Commons Media Select Committee that he welcomed chairman Samir Shah’s promise to tackle the underlying problems at BBC Arabic after previous efforts had fallen short.

“I take him to be in good faith,” said Prescott. “There seem to have been changes of personnel, a measure in which the director-general seems to place great faith. But my view is that switching out an individual or two is not enough when you are dealing with a shocking catalogue of seeming errors. Then there must be more going on than the editor on the day wasn’t up to the job.”

Prescott’s leaked memo, which sparked the latest controversy, raised concerns about “systemic problems” of bias in some of the BBC’s coverage, especially reporting on Israel and Hamas by the Arabic channels.

The BBC is searching for a new editor for BBC News Arabic to “try to get a grip on the service.”

In an email to the committee before his evidence session, Shah said that the changes in leadership were a determined attempt to tackle the underlying problems identified by Prescott.

Appearing before the committee, Shah said the BBC director-general role is “too big a job for one person,” hours after the corporation posted a job advertisement for the position.

The advert for the top BBC job went live on Monday after Tim Davie announced earlier this month that he would be stepping down.

Shah told the Culture, Media and Sport Committee that he was “inclined” to restructure the BBC’s executive after commenting that the role of director-general is “too big for one person.”

He said: “In my view (the role of director-general is too big for one person. The BBC needs to be the beacon of impartial journalism, it absolutely does.”

Prescott accused the departing director-general, Tim Davie, of having a “blind spot” over BBC editorial failings.

He said that the director-general, who resigned in the wake of the claim that Panorama had misled viewers by editing a President Trump speech, had failed to recognise areas where the BBC got things wrong. However, he also said that it was a “tragedy” that Davie had quit.

In opening remarks to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, Prescott said that his motivation for writing the note was to prevent the BBC from squandering a valuable opportunity to become the world’s most trusted news provider. “I am a strong supporter of the BBC,” he said.

“But what troubled me during my three years on the standards committee is that I kept seeing incipient problems that were not tackled properly and were getting worse.”

He denied claims the BBC was  institutionally biased” though.

At the most fundamental level I wrote that memo, let me be clear, because I am a strong supporter of the BBC.

“The BBC employs talented professionals across all of its factual and non-factual programmes, and most people in this country, certainly myself included, might go as far as to say that they love the BBC.

Questions were raised about political appointees on the BBC board, including that of Sir Robbie Gibb.

When asked about how he manages his own bias, Gibb said: “I have impartiality through my bones.”

He also said he felt he’d become “weaponised” in the way he’s perceived, and he dismissed the claims of a politically-motivated “coup” at the top of the BBC as “ridiculous” and “nonsense.”

Gibb said rumours of a “board-level orchestrated coup” over the leaking of Prescott’s memo were “complete nonsense.”

Pushed on his links to the Jewish Chronicle, he said that during his time there he had “no involvement editorially whatsoever” but was a director as a “favour.”

Shah said hiring a new director-general is “the most important job I have right now.”

He said that he needs to “steer the ship” onto an “even keel.” “The most important job I have right now is to recruit a director general. It is … the most important thing I need to do.”

Prescott has said that Donald Trump’s reputation “probably” will not be damaged by the BBC’s Panorama documentary.

He was asked if he agrees that Trump’s reputation might have been “tarnished” by the spliced edit of his speech in the programme.

Prescott told MPs he is a “centrist dad” when asked if he was biased.

The former adviser to the BBC editorial guidelines and standards committee said: “It’s always a tough job, isn’t it? Spotting your own biases. I mean, you know, when you read about these centrist dads, I think I’m a centrist dad. That would probably cover it.”

Former BBC executive Richard Sambrook has been appointed to help the corporation review its editorial guidelines and standards committee (EGSC), which is responsible for overseeing editorial standards and guidelines.