The impartiality of senior BBC producer Rosie Garthwaite has been called into question after she admitted sharing “inaccurate” propaganda about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on social media.
After being questioned by the Jewish Chronicle as to why she had shared an incorrect image of four different maps under the headline “The Palestinian Historic Compromise” on social media, a BBC spokesperson responded on Ms Garthwaite’s behalf saying that she later “realised it was inaccurate” and un-retweeted it.
Garthwaite is currently producing a new BBC documentary looking into the activities of Israel’s Elad and City of David organisations in East Jerusalem, which preserve the historic sites. The City of David’s Doron Spielman has expressed concerns that while the BBC had the right to “fully investigate” the role of the organisations in settlement construction and archaeological digs in East Jerusalem, “their investigation seemed to be biased from the outset”.
On the centenary of the Balfour Declaration in 2017, Garthwaite posted on her personal Twitter account that the date represented “one hundred years of British duplicity in the Middle East”.
In a later post in March 2019, she claimed that the Gaza Strip has only “1 exit through an Israeli-controlled border”, though Gaza also shares a border with Egypt.
Ms Garthwaite previously shared a tweet of an article suggesting that Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi had become an “icon for Palestinian resistance”. After assaulting Israeli soldiers in 2017, Tamimi was filmed on Facebook Live, calling on viewers to “unite to liberate Palestine”, stating that “whether it is stabbings or martyrdom operations or throwing stones, everyone must do his part and we must unite in order for our message to be heard that we want to liberate Palestine”.
Garthwaite previously worked for Al Jazeera and has presented programmes for BBC World News. She is the author of a book, How to Avoid Being Killed in a War Zone.
Another BBC journalist, Nimesh Thaker, is currently under investigation for an anonymous Twitter account on which he reportedly wrote anti-Israel posts.
The new BBC Director General, Tim Davie, has introduced strict new regulations on BBC journalists’ use of Twitter and other social media sites following disputes over impartiality.
