The BBC , Guardian and Sky News have repeatedly used language, tone and framing that dehumanises Palestinian casualties, a UK media monitor has said.
By analysing 11,295 excerpts from 686 articles covering the same events across the three news publishers and Al Jazeera , NewsCord said it found that while Al Jazeera showed greater balance in its coverage, the others downplayed Israeli violence through the use of passive voice, obscured language, selective reporting and negative qualifiers.
The report added that the publications also included fewer Palestinian voices and, when they did, devoted a lower word count to them compared with Israeli voices.
"The data in this report is not opinion, it's the result of a systematic classification of thousands of article excerpts covering the same events, in an attempt to measure overall bias in three years of reporting on this long, bloody genocide," Nima Akram, NewsCord's founder, said in a statement.
NewsCord said the BBC led the pattern of passive voice in nearly 80 percent of sentences involving Palestinian casualties, removing Israel's responsibility, for example, "15 killed as Israel attacks camp" rather than "Israel killed 15 people".
At the same time, the broadcaster explicitly attributed Israeli attacks only around half the time, with Sky News and the Guardian at 54 percent, compared with Al Jazeera 's 89 percent.
The report also said the BBC humanised Israeli captives twice as often as Palestinian detainees, with almost 60 percent for Israeli captives and only 29 percent for Palestinian prisoners. It said Al Jazeera was the most balanced outlet in this category.
"These aren't isolated events; they're structural patterns which shape how millions of readers understand Israel's genocide in Gaza and ultimately whose suffering deserves attention," Akram added.
Looking at Sky News , the report said the outlet gave nearly double the word count to Israeli perspectives, at 28 percent, compared with 15 percent for Palestinians. It said Al Jazeera gave greater prominence to Palestinian voices .
It added that Sky News used the term "genocide" only 12 times across the dataset, compared with 15 for the BBC and 21 for The Guardian . Sky News also referenced 7 October in reporting on Israeli strikes in 50 percent of cases, framing the attacks as part of a "two-sided conflict", while the BBC did so 30 percent of the time.
"The data-driven research reveals consistent patterns in terminology and narrative structure that shape how Gaza is presented to audiences. These patterns collectively align with perspectives that minimize Israel's accountability and reinforce the policy positions of its Western allies," Assal Rad, non-resident fellow at Arab Center Washington DC, said.
"These choices are no accident. As such, the media has played an active role in laundering Israeli war crimes and normalizing the unthinkable."
The monitor called on the three outlets to review their Gaza war coverage, correct issues of framing, attribution and proportionality in future reporting, disclose and revise editorial practices, and commit to ongoing self-auditing using objective metrics.
NewsCord also called on the BBC , which has regularly faced accusations of complicity in Israel's war on Gaza, to publish these metrics regularly due to its role as a publicly funded broadcaster. It also criticised the broadcaster's "selective use" of the term "Hamas-run health ministry", saying it appeared in 60 percent of cases.
While the report said the BBC regularly notes the United Nations' view that Gaza health ministry death toll figures are credible, it found this was mentioned only 0.6 percent of the time. It added that the broadcaster was six times more likely to include negative qualifiers such as "the ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants".
The New Arab has contacted the BBC , Guardian and Sky News for comment.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) said the findings had reflected a broader pattern of entrenched anti-Palestinian bias in mainstream media coverage and the normalisation of Israeli abuses.
"This important report adds to the overwhelming body of evidence that clearly shows the systemic and long-term anti-Palestinian bias across the mainstream media," Peter Leary, deputy director of the PSC, said.
"We know that this bias serves to cover up and legitimise Israel's ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people including genocide. It is vital that we continue to hold the media to account, as one of the principal pillars propping up Britain's complicity in Israel's atrocities."