Report: BBC Reassessing List of Journalists Killed in Gaza After Terror Links Emerge

The BBC is reassessing a list it published naming journalists killed during the war, following a Telegraph investigation that found 53 of the people included were terrorist operatives. Some, according to the report, allegedly took part in the October 7 attack and were described by the organizations they belonged to as “martyrs.”

The list, which BBC Arabic began publishing at the start of the war and continues to update on its website, includes more than 180 Palestinians and four Israelis. Twelve names were removed from the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) list after it was determined that they were “not journalists or media workers” or that they had “taken part in hostilities.”

According to the Telegraph, 20 of the 53 names were linked to terrorist organizations through death notices published by those groups, while another 21 were documented online carrying weapons or wearing uniforms. Ten also appeared on the BBC’s English-language website, while the remaining 43 appeared only on BBC Arabic.

Among the cases uncovered was Abdullah Darwish, who was presented as an Al-Aqsa photographer. The CPJ removed his name after determining that he took part in the October 7 attack as part of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. In photos posted online, Darwish is seen wearing a green headband associated with Hamas’s military wing. He was killed in a targeted strike in December 2023.

Yaqub al-Barsh, presented as the operations manager of Namaa Radio, was also removed from the CPJ list after being identified as a member of the al-Qassam Brigades. On the organization’s website, he appears on its list of “martyrs.” Razak Abu Shuqayan, presented as a journalist at “Palestine Now,” was documented wearing a Hamas uniform and carrying an automatic rifle.

The BBC said the list was last updated in August 2025 and refers to journalists killed in Gaza, Lebanon, and Israel, regardless of the political affiliation of the media outlets where they worked.

Rebecca Paul, the culture secretary in the British shadow government, called the findings “part of an ongoing problem of a lack of objectivity and accountability,” adding: “If the BBC wants to regain the public’s trust, it must stop giving undue credibility to antisemites and terrorists and apply the same rigorous standards to everyone.”

Danny Cohen, the BBC’s former television director, said that “once again, the BBC finds itself at the center of a scandal involving inaccuracy and anti-Israel bias.” In his words, “given the BBC’s enormous journalistic resources, this is simply not good enough.”