PM on Gaza hospital blast reporting: Hamas should be distrusted like the Kremlin
The Foreign Secretary said media organisations should focus on ‘accuracy rather than pace’.
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Your support makes all the difference.The Prime Minister has told journalists they should treat statements from Hamas with the same distrust as those from the Russian Government after hundreds of people died in a blast at a Gaza City hospital.
Hamas has blamed an Israeli air strike for the atrocity, while the Israeli military said the hospital was hit by a rocket misfired by Palestinian militants.
On Wednesday, Conservative former minister Stephen Crabb told the Commons: “Last night, sections of the British media were reporting as fact that it was Israeli rockets that had landed and attacked the al Ahli hospital, relying on information supplied by terrorist-controlled Gaza.
“The headlines have since been rewritten but the outpouring of Jew-hate on social media overnight was vile.
“So would the Prime Minister please make the point again that the way that this conflict is being reported has massive implications for our Jewish community and that any information coming from Hamas must be treated with a degree of scrutiny and cross-examination that is sadly sometimes lacking?”
Mr Sunak said: “He is absolutely right that we should not rush to judgment before we have all the facts on the appalling situation that we saw yesterday, particularly given the sensitivities that he raises, the impact on communities here, but also across the region.
“As I said, it is incumbent on all of those in positions of responsibility in this House and outside in the media to recognise that the words we say will have an impact and we should be careful with them.”
After reiterating that the UK is working with allies to establish the truth about what happened, Mr Sunak added: “He is right to point out in the same way as that we don’t treat what comes out of the Kremlin as the gospel truth, we should not do the same with Hamas.”
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said “no-one should be taking at face value the word of a terrorist organisation”.
Hamas is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK Government.
On Tuesday, the hospital blast was reported by various news organisations – including BBC News, Sky News and Reuters – citing a statement from Hamas claiming an Israeli air strike was to blame.
A BBC Breaking News message on social media read: “Hundreds feared dead or injured in Israeli air strike on hospital in Gaza, Palestinian officials say.”
Sky News wrote on Twitter, formerly X, saying: “Gaza Health Ministry says at least 500 people have been killed in Israeli air strike on al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza City.”
Conservative former minister Damian Green said in the Commons broadcasters have a “responsibility” to “make sure that they do not disseminate false information”.
Mr Green asked if the Foreign Secretary agrees social media platform owners “have some responsibility to try and avoid hate being spread literally around the world at times like this?”
James Cleverly said: “I would make a broad point to broadcasters. I have had this conversation directly with broadcasters in the past. I believe there is an attempt by broadcasters to try and outpace those social media platforms.
“The days of breaking news on those traditional platforms is long in the past. They should focus on accuracy rather than pace because their words have impact here in the UK and around the world.”
He said there are ongoing efforts in Government to urge social media platforms to “act with greater professionalism and greater consciousness of the impact they have”.
He added later in the session: “It is incredibly important the BBC and other broadcasters are very careful in their reporting of this issue because of the sensitivity and because of the implications, not just in the region itself but here in the UK. And that is a general plea to all broadcasters.”
Mr Cleverly also said that “rushed, inaccurate reporting costs lives” and everybody, including journalists, should be “very conscious that this involves real lives in the most sensitive of circumstances and could have repercussions not just in the area, not just in the region, but in this country as well”.
He also urged MPs and broadcasters to be “thoughtful of the implications of their actions, to be sceptical of all information coming out from Hamas”.
A spokesperson for the BBC said: “Anyone watching, listening to or reading our coverage can see we have set out both sides’ competing claims about the attack, clearly showing who is saying them, and what we do or don’t know.”
The PA news agency understands that Sky News always reports statements as attributed, from all sides of the conflict, and Gaza Health Ministry had been labelled “clearly” on social media as the source.
Sky News and Reuters have been asked for comment.