BBC Chair Rejects Jewish Group’s Demand For Formal Antisemitism Investigation

deadline.com:

The chair of the BBC has turned down a request from a group of 200 Jewish staffers, contributors and suppliers to launch a formal investigation into “systemic problems of antisemitism and bias” within the corporation.

Led by 9/11: Inside the President’s War Room EP Neil Grant, the group sent a letter to BBC Board members and Chair Samir Shah on July 19 describing their “anguish and disbelief because we fear we have now exhausted the process of raising our very serious concerns about anti-Jewish racism with BBC Management.” The group also sent the board members what they describe as a non-exhaustive list of social media breaches and “impartiality breaches in matters of public controversy relating to Israel and Gaza,” broadcast mistakes that “suggest bias,” and an account from anonymous sources “of the fear and mental health toll on Jewish BBC staff, their feelings of isolation and alienation from their bosses and experiences of prejudice and racism at work.” Deadline is told that the group shared the correspondence with Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy’s office, with the hope that Nandy would raise the issue during her meeting with Director General Tim Davie today, which was ostensibly organized to discuss the Huw Edwards scandal.

Responding to the correspondence, Shah said the board “holds the [BBC] Executive to account through the assurances we seek and the questions we ask of the decision-making process,” but declined to launch a formal investigation.

The group of more than 200 Jewish staffers, contributors and suppliers, who previously combined to protest the refusal to dismiss cricket commentator Qasim Sheikh, is made up of the likes of Grant, former BBC TV chief Danny Cohen and Who Wants to be a Millionaire?