BBC admits it breached editorial guidelines by failing to reveal Gaza doc narrator was son of Hamas official

Scottish Sun

6 days ago

BBC bosses were forced to withdraw the documentary from its iPlayer streaming service
'PROPAGANDA TOOL' BBC admits it breached editorial guidelines by failing to reveal Gaza doc narrator was son of Hamas official
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The BBC has admitted to breaching its editorial guidelines by failing to reveal the narrator of a Gaza documentary was the son of a Hamas official.
An independent probe into Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone, was commissioned by the broadcaster earlier this year.
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The broadcaster spent £400,000 of licence payers' cash making the doc, which was branded a propaganda show for the evil terror group Hamas, The Sun revealed in February.
In a shocking revelation, the main narrator of the heart-tugging, supposedly factual exposé - 13-year-old Abdulla Eliyazour - was the son of senior Hamas official Dr Ayman Al-Yazouri.
Investigative journalist David Collier, who exposed the identities of those involved, said: 'How did the BBC let a son of a Hamas minister walk around looking for sympathy and demonising Israel for an hour in a documentary?
'The BBC is publishing Hamas propaganda.
'The current hierarchy at the BBC has turned a once respected state broadcaster into a propaganda outlet for a radical Islamic terror group.'
The review has now found the Beeb breached editorial guideline 3.3.17, on accuracy, by failing to disclose to audiences the "critical information" of the role the 13-year-old's father had within the Hamas-run government.
The report found nobody at the BBC knew of the father's position when the documentary first aired on February 17.
But three people at Hoyo Films, the independent production company which produced the film, were aware, it concluded.
It added the report does not find the production company misled the corporation, but does find the firm bears most of the responsibility for the failure.
The review found no other breaches of the guidelines.
This comes after BBC bosses were forced to withdraw the documentary from its iPlayer streaming service in February.
Anger grew after Beeb bosses initially tried to defend the programme, and blamed London-based production company Hoyo Films for not revealing the boy's link.
But the contract between the BBC and Hoyo suggested the corporation had direct and regular involvement - and shows action should have taken action.
One section of the contract read: "We will address editorial compliance issues as they arise by having regular updates and phone calls with the commissioning editor."
The documentary was made by the BBC's Current Affair TV arm which paid award-winning Hoyo Films to craft the production.
But it was still unclear why the boy's appearance was allowed by the department's commissioning editor Gian Quaglieni.
Ex-boss Danny Cohen - former director of BBC television - demanded clarity as to who was responsible and whether Hamas were given licence cash.
Mr Cohen said: "The BBC needs to account for every penny spent on this documentary - £400,000 is a lot of licence-fee payers money.
"They should be transparently told where their money went and whether any of it reached the hands of Hamas.
"The BBC must also launch a wider investigation into systemic bias against Israel after repeated editorial failures since the October 7 massacres."
And, in her letter to Director General of the BBC, Tim Davie, Mrs Kemi Badenoch said: "It is now clear to me that you should commission a full independent inquiry to consider this and wider allegations of systemic BBC bias against Israel.
"It is well known that inside Gaza the influence of the proscribed terrorist organisation Hamas is pervasive.
"How could any programme from there be commissioned, without comprehensive work by the BBC to ensure that presenters or participants were - as far as possible - not linked to that appalling regime?
"Would the BBC be this naive if it was commissioning content from North Korea or the Islamic Republic of Iran?"
Mrs Badenoch added that it was "profoundly troubling" that the BBC initially defended the documentary insisting it "remains a powerful child's eye view of the devastating consequences of the war".
She said: "Surely it should have been immediately apparent that the programme was fundamentally flawed?
"An investigation must consider allegations of potential collusion with Hamas' and the possibility of payment to Hamas officials.
"These are not isolated incidents."
Left-wing bias is alleged to have tainted BBC coverage of the Gaza War ever since October 7 and has sparked numerous calls for a crackdown.
And a BBC reporter who triggered one of the first bias rows of the war was yesterday revealed to have sparked more fury with an inflammatory online post.
On October 17 - ten days after Hamas massacred 1,200 people and grabbed 251 hostages - Jon Donnison told viewers it appeared "an Israeli air strike or several air strikes" had blitzed Gaza's Al-Ahli Hospital.
It later emerged that a miss-fired Hamas rocket hit the medical centre in an attack reported to have claimed 500 lives.
But Mr Donnison was slammed on X for posting on Saturday: "The propaganda efforts by both Hamas and Israel over the hostage releases are pretty nauseating."
He took down the post and apologised yesterday after his comment triggered fury.
David Collier raged: "He sees Hamas abusing and torturing Israeli hostages on TV.
"Then he sees Israeli families indescribable happiness as their loved ones return.
"And he thinks they are the same - we should not be paying his salary."
Sarah Deech posted: "BBC Middle East reporter Jon Donnison seems to think Hamas's grotesque displays of jihadi ideology, glorifying death and violence, are somehow equivalent to Israelis welcoming home emaciated, tortured hostages."
The BBC said previously: "Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone features important stories we think should be told - those of the experiences of children in Gaza.
"There have been continuing questions raised about the programme and in the light of these, we are conducting further due diligence with the production company.
"The programme will not be available on iPlayer while this is taking place."
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Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone was pulled from iPlayer amid investigations
Credit: BBC
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