The BBC is in trouble with the ICO for failing to provide call logs showing whether the corporation’s top brass have been conferring with Israeli officials during the Gaza genocide. Harriet Williamson reports.

The BBC has broken the law by failing to give a “substantive response” to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request asking if and when calls took place between its most senior figures and the Israeli embassy, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has found.

The ICO – the independent regulatory office that upholds information rights in the public interest – issued a decision notice on Tuesday 10 March, seen by Novara Media ahead of publication online, finding the BBC had failed to respond adequately and within the 20 working days stipulated by law.

Finding the BBC to be in breach of section 10 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the ICO ordered the broadcaster to provide a “substantive response” to the FOI within 30 days or risk being treated as in contempt of court.

The BBC must now hand over records of any calls between the Israeli embassy – including ambassador Tzipi Hotovely – and the BBC-issued mobile phone lines of top corporation leadership, or provide a valid justification under the FOIA for withholding the information. The BBC top brass whose phone records are sought are director-general Tim Davie, BBC board member Sir Robbie Gibb, BBC News CEO Deborah Turness and BBC chair Dr Samir Shah.

The FOI request was submitted on 6 December last year by a former civil servant, who wished to remain anonymous. He told Novara Media he was concerned by the BBC’s biased coverage of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. “If these calls exist, they represent a serious breakdown of the BBC’s Charter of Impartiality and a potential violation by the Israeli embassy of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” he said.

The applicant requested data showing when any such calls had happened, how long they lasted and whether they were inbound or outbound. From this, he hoped to see if there were any large clusters of calls around events such as Glastonbury 2025 – where punk-rap duo Bob Vylan sparked backlash for their “Death to the IDF” chant – and the European Broadcasting Union meeting, where members voted to include Israel in Eurovision 2026.

BBC officials have alluded to such calls in the past. When asked about lobbying from “both sides” regarding Israel’s genocidal war in September last year, director-general Tim Davie told Labour MP Dr Rupa Huq at a Culture, Media and Sport Committee oral evidence session that “I am talking to people on every angle of this conflict on a very regular basis”.

Under Article 41 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, foreign diplomats have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of the receiving state.

If the Israeli embassy made inbound calls to the BBC’s top brass, this could arguably constitute lobbying Britain’s national broadcaster – bypassing transparent press channels – and constitute an example of improper interference in a sovereign institution’s editorial independence.

If the BBC’s most senior figures made outbound calls to the Israeli embassy, that could point to a level of coordination which – during a period of intense conflict and editorial scrutiny – puts the BBC’s commitment to independent and impartial journalism at risk.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) said “it isn’t surprising” that the BBC is “trying to shield itself from accountability for its shameful anti-Palestinian bias”.

Celie Hanson, PSC campaigns officer, told Novara Media: “We already know that the extent of the BBC’s pro-Israel bias has led to widespread dissent among BBC staff who have complained of the persistent promotion of pro-Israel narratives and its failure to adhere to its own editorial standards.”

The BBC did respond to the FOI request on 9 February, after 38 days – almost double the legal time limit. But the ICO deemed its response inadequate, writing on 10 March that “by the date of this notice the public authority has not issued a substantive response to this request”. This is because the BBC claimed that although it had call logs going back to 7 April 2025, it “did not find any information of the description you have asked for (call metadata)”. No call data of any variety was shared with the applicant.

For the applicant, the BBC’s claim that records don’t exist is an “absurd notion that implies that the BBC doesn’t have access to any billing information about calls made using their 10,000+ corporate mobile lines”.

By finding the BBC in breach of the Act, the ICO appears to have agreed.

The ICO has the power to issue enforcement notices and practice recommendations to ensure that obligations under the FOIA are upheld. It is unlawful for public bodies to fail to respond adequately to a request for information, and a criminal offence to deliberately destroy, hide or alter requested information to prevent it from being released.

The BBC’s coverage of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza was found to be systematically biased against Palestinians and consistently failed to reach standards of impartiality, according to research from the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM).

The CfMM report, which analysed more than 35,000 pieces of BBC content in the year from October 2023, found that the BBC gave Israeli deaths 33 times more coverage per fatality than Palestinian deaths, that both broadcast segments and articles included clear double standards, and BBC content consistently shut down allegations of genocide.

Israel has killed a conservative estimate of 72,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, and injured over 170,000. At least 90% of the population of the Gaza Strip has been displaced, and children have borne the brunt of Israel’s violence. UNICEF estimates that 64,000 children were killed or injured by Israel in the two years since October 2023.

Correction 16/03/26 19:03: This article was amended to add the detail that the BBC could invoke an exemption under the FOIA to avoid providing the requested information.

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