BBC’s Newsbeat adds redundant ambiguity to report on blogger’s tweets

The BBC isn't sure if a blogger's Tweets are anti-Israel or not.

An article produced by the BBC’s Newsbeat division appeared on the Newsbeat website and the BBC News website on January 22nd under the headline “L’Oreal hijab model pulls out of campaign after backlash“.

The story was introduced as follows:

“UK beauty blogger Amena Khan says she’s pulling out of a L’Oreal campaign.

In a post on Instagram she says she’s stepping down from the campaign “because of the current conversations surrounding it”.

Her decision follows the discovery of tweets she wrote in 2014, which some have branded as “anti-Israel”.” [emphasis added]

Later on readers were told that: [emphasis added]

“It follows accusations that she expressed “anti-Israel” views in a number of tweets from 2014.

Newsbeat has not seen the tweets as they have now been deleted but in her post, Amena apologises for them, saying she’s sorry for the “upset and hurt” they’ve caused.

“Championing diversity is one of my passions, I don’t discriminate against anyone,” she adds.”

Newsbeat could have taken a look at the Daily Mail’s report on the story (published over an hour before the final version of the BBC’s article appeared) which includes screenshots of some of Khan’s 2014 tweets.

Daily Mail

A simple internet search – which Newsbeat apparently failed to do – turns up screenshots of other examples of Khan’s now deleted anti-Israel rhetoric.

Obviously the qualifying language and equivocal punctuation that was used in this report to suggest to BBC audiences that the anti-Israel nature of Khan’s Tweets is open to interpretation is misleading and it would be appropriate for Newsbeat to correct the article accordingly.

 

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