LONDON: Raffi Berg, the BBC’s Middle East online editor, has launched legal action against British journalist Owen Jones over an article that alleged institutional bias in the broadcaster’s coverage of the conflict in Gaza, it was revealed on Thursday.
Court documents filed at the High Court show Berg is suing Jones for libel over the piece— The BBC’s Civil War Over Gaza — published on the Drop Site website in December last year.
The article cited claims from 13 BBC employees who, speaking anonymously, accused Berg of “playing a key role in a wider BBC culture of systematic Israeli propaganda.”
It further alleged that he reshaped headlines and story text to “foreground the Israeli military perspective while stripping away Palestinian humanity.”
Berg, who has worked at the BBC since 2001 and served as Middle East editor for its news website for 12 years, strongly denies the accusations.
