The heads of the BBC have addressed the ongoing controversy concerning its documentary “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone,” with the broadcaster’s chair describing it as a “dagger to the heart” of BBC impartiality.
The documentary was pulled from the BBC streaming service iPlayer two weeks ago after concerns were raised following the revelation that its 13-year-old narrator was the son of a deputy agricultural minister in Gaza’s Hamas-run government. In announcing that it was pulling the doc, the BBC acknowledged its failure to disclose the boy’s family ties to Hamas and said it would be conducting “further due diligence” with London-based production company Hoyo Films.
On Tuesday in a pre-planned Parliamentary session, the matter was raised to BBC director general Tim Davie and chair Samir Shah.
“I agree that this is a really bad moment,” Shah said. “What has been revealed is a dagger to the heart of the BBC’s claim to be impartial and trustworthy, which is why I and the board are determined to answer the questions being asked.” He added that the BBC Board was “very exercized” by the scandal and would aim to “get to the bottom of this and take appropriate actions.”
Davie said that it was a “very difficult decision” to remove the documentary, adding that these were “stories we want to tell.” He also pushed back on the idea that the BBC bowed to “lobbies from either side,” and said that it simply came to whether “people can trust this program” and not whether it was a “valid area of journalistic endeavour.”
Shah noted that questions about the doc arose the day it first aired and said he found, to his “shock,” that there were “serious failings on both sides [concerning how the doc was made], on the independent production side, as well as on the BBC side.” He added that the BBC’s editorial guidelines and standards were “very strong,” noting that he worried that it “wasn’t so much the processes were at fault as people weren’t doing their job.”
Shah also asserted that he wanted to make it “clear” that he thought “the idea that we see what’s happening in Gaza through the eyes of children was a good documentary idea — I do not want anybody to think that’s not the case.” Davie later said that “voices of those children and children in Gaza is absolutely something we need to hear.”
Davie added that “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone” had received around 500 complaints about it being “biased against Israel,” while there had been around 1,800 calls for it to be put back on iPlayer after it was removed. Both Davie and Shah confirmed there would be a “proper deep dive” into the makings of the documentary.
Days after the BBC’s decision to remove the documentary from its platform, a strongly-worded opened letter condemned the move as “politically motivated censorship.”
Signed by more than 1000 names from the media industries — including Ken Loach, Mike Leigh, Gary Lineker and Riz Ahmed — it described the film “an essential piece of journalism, offering an all-too-rare perspective on the lived experiences of Palestinian children living in unimaginable circumstances.” The letter, addressed to BBC chair Samir Shah, director general Tim Davie and chief content officer Charlotte Moore, added that it was “appalled that the BBC has chosen to give credence to a politicized campaign that sought to discredit a documentary about children’s experiences of unspeakable Israeli military violence.”
While it didn’t directly respond to the letter, the BBC followed up by apologizing and admitting that “serious flaws” had occurred in the making of the documentary.
According to the BBC, production company Hoyo Films withheld crucial information despite direct questioning. “During the production process, the independent 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,” the spokesperson said. “Since transmission, they have acknowledged that they knew that the boy’s father was a Deputy Agriculture Minister in the Hamas Government.”
The broadcaster confirmed it has “no plans to broadcast the program again in its current form or return it to iPlayer” pending the investigation’s completion.
According to the BBC, Hoyo also told the broadcaster that they paid the young boy’s mother a “limited sum of money” for narrating the film, paid via his sister’s bank account. It said the production company had made assurances that no payments had been made to any members of Hamas or its affiliates “either directly, in kind or as a gift.”
In its statement, Hoyo said: “We feel this remains an important story to tell, and that our contributors — who have no say in the war — should have their voices heard.”
The day before the Parliamentary session, media regulator Ofcom wrote and published a letter to Shah saying that it had “ongoing concerns about the nature and gravity” of the “failings” concerning “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone” and the “negative impact they have on the trust audiences place in the BBC’s journalism.”
