In an interview with Green Party leader Zack Polanski, BBC presenter Nick Robinson insisted on amplifying the voice of genocidaires and genocide-deniers. He even claimed it’s the BBC‘s job to do so.
With the overwhelming weight of expert opinion calling Israel’s mass murder in Gaza genocide, however, people expressed serious concern about the BBC still clinging to its longstanding efforts to downplay the genocide.
BBC wants to be “fair” to the people committing genocide
In the interview, Robinson interrupted Polanski to say:
I don’t want to have a debate about the word, but I do want it noted that no court has said it’s genocide and Israel completely rejects the idea it’s genocide.
Criticising the BBC‘s pro-Israel bias in 2025, actor Liam Cunningham asked:
Are we saying, due to impartiality, that if this was 1944 or 1945 when we discovered the horrors of Auschwitz, would we be contacting Heinrich Himmler for his take on the genocide? Because that’s what’s going on now.
Fast-forwarding to 2026, Robinson did just that. Because after emphasising the genocidaires’ denial, he insisted:
it’s only fair to point that out.
And when Polanski challenged him on X after the interview, Robinson doubled down:
Simple answer Zack. Our job is to report. We interview you & those you quote who use the word genocide. We do the same for those who disagree. We also report that no international court has yet made a judgment. Nor has the UN. That’s not me or the BBC taking sides or downplaying…
— Nick Robinson (@bbcnickrobinson) March 22, 2026
Hi @bbcnickrobinson, you said “Nor has the UN made a judgment” but on the 16th of September 2025 the UN made a judgment (see below). I trust you’ll have the integrity to acknowledge your honest oversight to @ZackPolanski & BBC licence fee payers.
Source: https://t.co/yBkL6cU3VZ https://t.co/3aldaJ8H1x pic.twitter.com/uzcvSYGgK0
— Ben Goren (@BanGaoRen) March 23, 2026
As the Canary has documented in depth, UN legal expert Francesca Albanese absolutely has called Israel’s actions genocide, as has the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel.
Countless genocide scholars, legal professionals, human rights groups, and humanitarian organisations have joined them. Even prominent Israeli genocide scholars have reached the conclusion that Israel has committed genocide. And a Dutch media report summarised that “leading genocide researchers are surprisingly unanimous”.
This overwhelming consensus is why so many people are sick of BBC figures trying to explain away their shocking ‘both sides‘ approach to genocide:
When the overwhelming body of experts describe it as genocide, and you still disagree, this is making a judgement. The BBC would not deny climate change. Nearly every major human rights and academic experts on genocide have determined Israel has carried out genocide.
— Philip Proudfoot (@PhilipProudfoot) March 22, 2026
You’re wrong on the UN. The UN Commission concluded in their report in September 2025 that Israel has committed genocide. You should not only know this, you should state this every time the issue arises.
— Omar Baggili
(@OmarBaggili) March 23, 2026
Balance, Nick. Please.
We’ve have been here before on climate change denial. pic.twitter.com/4ChWfVTFuP— Mick
(@MickCoffey2) March 23, 2026
Giving genocidal allies an equal say is complicity
Genocide expert Martin Shaw has previously called media outlets avoiding the word genocide “tame“. And he highlighted that the BBC has hardly been rushing to amplify his voice, saying:
But Nick you don’t “interview those who use the word genocide”. I’m one of the most prominent British genocide scholars and I called Israel’s genocide in October 2023. I’ve had a lot of international media attention but my BBC total in 30 months is one interview on Radio Ulster.
He also suggested that the BBC probably wouldn’t jump to highlight the voices of genocidaires in other cases:
This. Even in his interview with @ZackPolanski, @bbcnickrobinson had to say ‘but Israel says’.
I don’t think he would have said ‘but the Myanmar government says’ if Zack had referred to the genocide of the Rohingya. https://t.co/isUZQCdcb0
— Martin Shaw (@martinshawx) March 23, 2026
A terrible betrayal of journalistic standards & duty of BBC @bbcnickrobinson
Genocide Convention 1948 is designed to stop genocides. Not for the world to wait for a final court judgement
The evidence of a genocide in Gaza is conclusive
BBC is protecting Israel, the… https://t.co/tRRP0mQGSm
— Tom London (@TomLondon6) March 22, 2026
And as experts have highlighted, genocidal campaigns would struggle to get off the ground without favourable media coverage:
From the Gaza Tribunal, which of course the BBC completely ignored.
Genocide denial is ALWAYS a part of genocide. https://t.co/ifRPWmxYpZ pic.twitter.com/kFGfJkHUnP
— Wokerati Marty (@WokeratiMarty) March 23, 2026
Polanski: “it feels like it’s getting a lot worse”
Polanski, meanwhile, shared a speech that he thinks is appropriate to consider:
whenever a BBC journalist denies the evidence in front of our very eyes in the name of “balance.”
The speaker was former BBC presenter Emily Maitlis, who spoke about the famous ‘boiling frog’ scenario, where a frog will jump out of already boiling water but stay in water that gradually boils around it. She said:
we have to stop normalizing the absurd.
And in a critique of the kinds of attitude that lead the BBC to both-sides genocide, she explained that:
we don’t have to be campaigners, but nor should we be complacent, complicit onlookers. Our job is to make sense of what we’re seeing and anticipate the next move. It’s the moment, in other words, that frog should be leaping out of the boiling water and phoning all its friends to warn them. But by then, we’re so far along the path of passivity, we’re cooked.
The BBC has a history too. In the past, for example, the broadcaster’s director of news and current affairs had to admit that its climate-change coverage was “wrong too often”, insisting that:
You do not need a ‘denier’ to balance the debate.
The speech from Maitlis, Polanski said, “should have been a turning point”. Instead, he stressed:
it feels like it’s getting a lot worse
And it really is hard to get much worse than constantly straining to emphasise the denial of genocidaires when experts overwhelmingly conclude they’ve been committing genocide. We know the BBC is state propaganda. But this is just nauseating.
Featured image via YouTube screenshot/BBC Politics
By Ed Sykes
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