© Getty Images / Carl Court
The probe is related to the journalists' social media activities, namely liking and reposting pro-Palestinian content and criticism of Israel. The online conduct of BBC employees is covered by BBC's 'impartiality' rules.
According to British media reports, the offensive posts, all of which have been taken down, included descriptions of Hamas as "freedom fighters" and the group's surprise attack on Israel as a "morning of hope" for Palestine.
While the staff reporters have not been formally suspended as of yet, only put off-air, the corporation has already parted ways with the freelance contributor, who had been working with the outlet since early October.
"We are urgently investigating this matter. We take allegations of breaches of our editorial and social media guidelines with the utmost seriousness, and if and when we find breaches, we will act, including taking disciplinary action," a BBC spokesperson said on Sunday.
The probe comes as the broadcaster faces domestic backlash over its refusal to call Hamas a "terrorist" group - despite London designating them as such - and describing them as "militants" instead. While the BBC argued it has been doing so for the sake of maintaining "impartiality," multiple fellow British media outlets have attacked the broadcaster over this approach.
Seven former culture secretaries, led by Sajid Javid, penned a letter to the corporation's director-general, Tim Davie, arguing the approach actually damages the BBC's impartiality.
"The BBC's commitment is to impartiality, not indifference. This distinction is now in danger of being blurred. Worryingly, the imprecise language of 'fighters' and 'militants' also serves to conflate terrorists with the Palestinian people, who suffer more than anyone from Hamas' actions," they argued, asking the corporation to "urgently reassess" its approach.
The BBC has also faced online backlash over using very specific language to describe victims of the ongoing escalation between Israel and Hamas, referring to Israeli victims as "killed," and Palestinian - as those who "died" in massive retaliatory air strikes. Another major British broadcaster, SkyNews, has been caught using the same wording to describe the matter amid the escalation.
Reader Comments
The United Kingdom Imperial government created the problem and with Uncle Sam and his ,shall we say, lobbyists are determined to rewrite history before it has even happened.
By the way, He of the famous Balfour Declaration, Lord Balfour had been resigned from the position of Foreign Secretary for two days because of the Lloydd George government crisis over cash for 'Honours' which was solved by an emergency coalition during the first world war. He sent the letter to the Prime-Minister as a backbench MP and not as a Minister. Those lobbyists often state that it was official policy which it was not till after world War 2.
The duplicity of setting up both parties to fail appears to be completely lost on this generation of leaders.
I am ashamed to admit,''It was my country that created this mess''. Therefore no British Party of the last 105 years is free of evil effect of their action in this regard. They are now paying the price of the lies,and a breach of trust with their electorates. So be it.