BBC editor doesn’t regret misreporting on Gaza hospital blast, despite admitting he was wrong

BBC international editor Jeremy Bowen (screenshot used in accordsance with clause 27a of the copyright law)
BBC international editor Jeremy Bowen (screenshot used in accordsance with clause 27a of the copyright law)

BBC international editor Jeremy Bowen has said he doesn’t regret anything about his report last month that promoted disinformation regarding Gaza’s Al Ahli hospital blast. Hamas immediately blamed the blast, without evidence, on Israel, and it was in turn blamed on Israel by many media outlets, before overwhelming evidence emerged that a misfired Palestinian rocket was responsible.

“No, I don’t regret one thing in my reporting, because I think I was measured throughout, I didn’t race to judgement,” claims Bowen in a clip released yesterday from an interview he gave Saturday to the BBC’s own “Behind the Stories” program.

When the interviewer points out that Bowen falsely reported that the hospital building had been flattened, he says: “Oh yeah, well I got that wrong.”

He goes on to explain that “I was looking at the pictures, and what I could see was a square that appeared to be flaming on all sides, and there was a sort of a void in the middle, and I think it was a picture taken from a drone, and so, you know… we had to put together what we see. And I thought, well, that looks like the whole building’s gone, and that was my conclusion from looking at the pictures and I was wrong on that.

“But, I don’t feel particularly bad about that,” he adds.

“The missile hit the hospital not long after dark. You can hear the impact. The explosion destroyed Al-Ahli Hospital. It was already damaged from a smaller attack at the weekend. The building was flattened,” Bowen reported within hours of the first reports of the October 17 blast.

The BBC issued a correction, later amended with an apology, for aspects of its coverage of the incident.

Most Popular