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The BBC has called the ongoing controversy over a documentary on Gaza a “really, really bad moment”, admitting the film’s failings are “a dagger to the heart” of the corporation’s impartiality.
Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone was pulled from iPlayer and will not be broadcast on channels again after it emerged that the child narrator is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture.
Last week, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy called an “urgent meeting” with the corporation over the film.
BBC director-general Tim Davie and BBC chairman Samir Shah were questioned by MPs during a Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee meeting on Tuesday.
Mr Shah told committee members: “This is a really, really bad moment. It’s is a dagger to the heart of the BBC claim to be impartial and to be trustworthy.”
He said questions over “what went wrong” were asked “on day one” following the programme’s transmission.
He went on: “To my shock, I think that we found that there were serious failings on both sides, on the independent production side as well, as well as on the BBC side.”
Mr Shah said an interim report commissioned by the BBC found “it wasn’t so much the processes were at fault as people weren’t doing their job”.
Mr Shah said he believed the problem was confined to this programme, adding: “On this story we’re examining the how and why, the compliance that determines did not take place.”
However, he also said he thought a review into how the BBC covers stories in the Middle East should also be carried out independently.
Tim Davie said there was “a lot of frustration and disappointment” over the film, adding: “We’re very sorry to the audience.”
Read more:
Starmer faces calls for UK’s role in Gaza war to be scrutinised
Hamas rejects Israeli request to extend first phase of Gaza ceasefire…
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