BBC chief: Gaza documentary scandal a ‘dagger to the heart’ of our impartiality
Chair Samir Shah tells lawmakers ‘proper independent review’ needed; teenage son of Hamas figure at center of controversy reportedly featured in another UK news broadcast last year
BBC chair Samir Shah told lawmakers Tuesday that the scandal over a documentary it broadcast about the Gaza Strip was a “dagger to the heart” of the British broadcaster’s impartiality.
The documentary about children’s lives in Gaza was found to have been narrated by the 13-year-old son of a deputy minister in the Palestinian enclave’s Hamas government.
The new remarks came as it was revealed that the same teenager had also featured a year earlier in another UK network’s reporting about the Strip amid the war between Israel and Hamas that began on October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian terror group led an invasion of southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed, mostly civilians, and 251 hostages taken to Gaza.
Hamas, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction and overtly and systematically targeted civilians during its onslaught, is designated a terrorist organization by Britain, the United States and the European Union.
The BBC already said last week there had been “serious flaws” in “Gaza: How To Survive A War Zone,” made by an independent production company, and removed it from its online platform days after it was first broadcast on television.
Shah and BBC director general Tim Davie spoke at a meeting of the UK parliament’s Culture, Media & Sport Committee, calling for a “proper independent review” of the broadcaster’s coverage of conflicts in the Middle East.
“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,” Shah said. “We will get to the bottom of this and take appropriate actions.”
He said a “proper independent review” is needed and admitted “we have had loads of complaints about our coverage.”
“I have a worry that it wasn’t so much the processes that were at fault but that people weren’t doing their job,” Shah said.
Davie asserted that the BBC works to “navigate a course sensibly and rationally based on sensible journalism.”
He said he was “not ruling anything out” including the option that the documentary will be returned to the online platform following review.
The BBC has commissioned an independent probe of the documentary.
On Monday, Ofcom, the UK’s broadcasting regulator, sent a letter to Shah saying it has “ongoing concerns about the nature and gravity” of “serious failings in the production” of the Gaza documentary “and the negative impact they have on the trust audiences place in the BBC’s journalism.”
It said that while it will let the BBC probe the matter, it “will continue to keep the situation under close review and will expect regular updates from the BBC regarding both timeframes and progress and reserve the right to use our powers to step in should we feel it necessary to do so.”
Last week, the BBC said in a press release that it had launched an immediate review into the “mistakes,” which it called “significant and damaging,” in the making of the program, which was produced by UK company Hoyo Films.
The broadcaster said that it shared the blame for the “unacceptable” flaws with the production company. “BBC News takes full responsibility for these and the impact that these have had on the Corporation’s reputation. We apologize,” it added.
Son of Hamas official also featured in a second program
Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported Monday that the teenager at the center of the BBC show’s controversy, Abdullah al-Yazouri, was also featured in an award-winning current affairs program by another British news channel a year ago, though his connection to the Palestinian terror group largely went unnoticed until now.
The Telegraph said: “For seven months, Channel 4 News broadcast footage of Abdullah al-Yazouri, who was then 13, without disclosing he was the son of Dr. Ayman al-Yazouri, the deputy agriculture minister in Gaza’s Hamas-run government.”
The news program, which focused on financial hardships in Gaza, won multiple awards, including being picked as news program of the year by Press Gazette and the Royal Television Society (RTS), as well as winning a Bafta and an International Emmy for news reporting, according to the new report.
The RTS was said to be reevaluating the award.
According to the Telegraph, from late 2023 until April 2024, Channel 4 News repeatedly featured Abdullah, describing him as an ordinary Gazan while giving him a different name and incorrectly naming his uncle as his father.
Channel 4 News told The Telegraph that staff had found out about Abdullah’s real identity last summer. However, according to the report, the network only added an online clarification about the issues after investigative journalist David Collier recently highlighted the matter.
Collier said Abdullah was “delivering what appears to be scripted material across multiple broadcasts.”
He told the Telegraph: “Channel 4 News has admitted its staff knew Abdullah’s true identity but withheld it from the public for over half a year until my revelation. This raises profound questions about its journalistic integrity.”
Collier also pointed at a segment from a November 2023 broadcast in which Abdullah was shown among the ruins in Khan Younis after an Israeli airstrike.
The footage “appears designed to show Israel targeting a city with no Hamas presence. Yet moments later, viewers meet a family now known to be led by a minister from Gaza’s Hamas-led government,” Collier told the Guardian. “This crucial fact is withheld, leaving the false impression we are meeting yet another ordinary Palestinian household.”
ITN, which produces Channel 4 News, told the Telegraph it is false to suggest that the channel scripted voices for its coverage.
It also contended that Abdullah did not feature in any of Channel 4 News’s coverage that won Emmy, RTS, or Bafta awards.
A spokesman for Channel 4 News told The Telegraph it had “thoroughly reviewed how Abdullah al-Yazouri came to appear in three short news segments.”
He said that Abdullah “was sourced through an established journalist who has also worked for other major global media outlets,” and that his uncle “was miscommunicated to Channel 4 News as his father by a local fixer on the ground.”
