Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy to hold ‘urgent’ meeting over BBC Gaza documentary
The corporation has said it has no plans to broadcast the documentary again.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy is set to hold an “urgent meeting” with the chairman of the BBC after concerns were raised over a documentary aired by the broadcaster.
An internal review into Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone found that the programme’s child narrator is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture.
The BBC said independent production company Hoyo Films, who made the documentary, told them the boy’s mother had been paid “a limited sum of money for the narration”.
In a statement Ms Nandy, who will meet with Dr Samir Shah today, said: “The BBC has acknowledged serious failings by them and the production company Hoyo Films.
“The public rightly holds the BBC to the highest standards of reporting and governance which is why I will be having an urgent meeting with the BBC chair later today.
“I want assurances that no stone will be left unturned by the fact-finding review now commissioned by the BBC’s director-general.
“This review must be comprehensive, rigorous and get to the bottom of exactly what has happened in this case.
“It is critical for trust in the BBC that this review happens quickly, and that appropriate action is taken on its findings.”
A BBC spokesperson said its review “has identified serious flaws in the making of this programme”.
They added: “Some of these were made by the production company and some by the BBC; all of them are unacceptable.
“BBC News takes full responsibility for these and the impact that these have had on the corporation’s reputation. We apologise for this.
“Nothing is more important than the trust that our audiences have in our journalism. This incident has damaged that trust.
“While the intent of the documentary was aligned with our purpose – to tell the story of what is happening around the world, even in the most difficult and dangerous places – the processes and execution of this programme fell short of our expectations.
“Although the programme was made by an independent production company, who were commissioned to deliver a fully compliant documentary, the BBC has ultimate editorial responsibility for this programme as broadcast.”
The spokesperson said one of the core questions was around “the family connections of the young boy who is the narrator of the film” and added that the production company “was asked in writing a number of times by the BBC about any potential connections he and his family might have with Hamas”.
They said that “since transmission, they have acknowledged that they knew that the boy’s father was a deputy agriculture minister in the Hamas government” and also acknowledged “they never told the BBC this fact”.
After the discovery about Abdullah Al-Yazouri, who speaks about life in the territory amid the war between Israel and Hamas, the BBC added a disclaimer to the programme, and later removed it from its online catch-up service saying it had no plans to broadcast the programme again.
On Tuesday, protesters gathered outside Broadcasting House in London claiming the BBC had aired Hamas propaganda.
The BBC also faced criticism in pulling the documentary, with Gary Lineker, Anita Rani, Riz Ahmed and Miriam Margolyes among more than 500 media figures who had condemned the action.
In an open letter addressed to the BBC’s director-general Tim Davie, chairman Dr Shah and now-former chief content officer Charlotte Moore, hundreds of TV and film professionals and journalists called the decision to remove the documentary “politically motivated censorship”.
