Journalism Copyright © The Author(s), 2009. Reprints and permissions: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC) Vol. 10(2): 239–259 DOI: 10.1177/1464884908100603 REVIEW COMMENTARY Is the BBC biased? The Corporation and the coverage of the 2006 Israeli–Hezbollah war Ivor Gaber University of Bedfordshire, UK Emily Seymour Goldsmiths, University of London, UK Lisa Thomas University of Bedfordshire, UK ABSTRACT In the light of the findings of the BBC’s 2006 impartiality review of their coverage of the Arab–Israeli conflict, and the fact that most of the accusations of bias against the BBC continue to come from pro-Israel lobbyists, this research sought to investigate whether their claims of anti-Israel bias during the BBC’s reporting of the 2006 Israeli– Hezbollah war could be validated. Using ITV News as a control group, these claims were measured against the BBC’s revised editorial guidelines for covering the Middle East. The article demonstrates that, whilst certain aspects of the coverage were problematic, BBC journalists broadly adhered to the Governors’ revised editorial guidelines, and covered the conflict more or less impartially – if there was any bias it was towards, rather than against, Israel. ITV News coverage was more problematic but still achieved a significant degree of impartiality. KEY WORDS BBC bias accusations Hezbollah Israel journalism Lebanon news frames war Introduction Since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, media coverage of the Arab–Israeli conflict has been a matter of extreme interest and sensitivity, not just for those directly or indirectly involved, but also to international broadcasters and media academics. Indeed, a corpus of academic literature exists that attempts to demonstrate media bias for or against one side or the other. For example, in their study of the New York Times reporting of the at University of Sussex Library on August 24, 2015 jou.sagepub.com Downloaded from