BBC News issued an apology Friday after one of its presenters incorrectly referred to Israeli hostages held by Hamas as "prisoners," The Telegraph reported on Sunday.
Nicky Schiller, a BBC News channel anchor, made the error during a broadcast about the planned release of three Israeli hostages – Yarden Bibas, 35, Ofer Kalderon, 54, and Keith Samuel Siegel, 65 – who were taken captive during Hamas's October 7 attacks in 2023.
"Confirmation in the last couple of hours, first from Hamas, that three Israeli prisoners, all men this time, will be released tomorrow and then we will see 90 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails," Schiller said during the broadcast, according to The Telegraph.
The BBC later issued a live on-air correction. "Earlier today on BBC News we reported on the names of those three Israeli hostages who are due to be freed tomorrow," the statement read. "At one point during the coverage we mistakenly called the hostages 'prisoners' and we would like to apologize."
The three Israeli hostages were released in exchange for 81 Palestinian prisoners serving extended sentences and nine facing life terms, The Telegraph reports.
Yarden Bibas' wife Shiri and their two children – Ariel, 5, and Kfir, 1.5 years – were also taken hostage on October 7. Hamas has claimed that Shiri Bibas and her children were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, though Israel has expressed serious concerns about their wellbeing without confirming their deaths.
BBC in unforgiveable errors over Hamas hostages
People must be held accountable
Deliberate antisemitism bias again by BBC https://t.co/oqRirXwP8F
— Richard Tice MP ?? (@TiceRichard) February 1, 2025
This incident follows previous BBC apologies regarding Israel coverage. In November, the broadcaster apologized after reporter Monica Miller incorrectly stated twice that Israeli forces were targeting medical staff and Arabic speakers at Gaza's largest hospital.
A September analysis led by British lawyer Trevor Asserson identified over 1,500 potential breaches of BBC editorial guidelines during peak coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, highlighting what the report termed a "deeply worrying pattern of bias" against Israel.
