Latest news with #AbdullahAl-Yazouri
Spectator
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
The BBC Gaza documentary report is a cover-up
The BBC's long-awaited editorial review of its documentary Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone was published today. It reads not like a rigorous investigation into serious journalistic failures, but like a desperate institutional whitewash. The report bends over backwards to defend the indefensible, trying to sanitise a catastrophic editorial misjudgment as little more than 'a significant oversight by the Production Company.' At the heart of the scandal lies the BBC's failure to disclose that the documentary's narrator, a Palestinian boy named Abdullah Al-Yazouri, is the son of Ayman Al-Yazouri, a senior official in the Hamas-run government in Gaza. This, the report acknowledges, was 'wrong' and constituted a breach of guideline 3.3.17 on accuracy, specifically the obligation to avoid 'misleading audiences by failing to provide important context.' Yet this is the only breach the report concedes, despite a litany of other egregious failures. According to the BBC, the production company hired to make the film was 'consistently transparent' in believing that the narrator's father held 'a civilian or technocratic position' and 'made a mistake' by not informing the BBC. This is absurd. The director, co-director, and one Gaza-based crew member were all aware of the father's identity. In my opinion, the notion that anyone could mistake a deputy minister in the Hamas government for a non-political figure is either wilful blindness or calculated deceit. Even more damning is the revelation that the production company met directly with both the narrator and his father in August 2024. And yet, the report states with astonishing credulity: 'I have been told by the Production Company that there was no discussion of the father's position at this meeting.' Somehow, though, the report's author considers this not to be evidence of concealment, but merely an unfortunate omission. The BBC claimed contributors' social media had been checked, yet it took just one independent journalist a single evening after broadcast to uncover everything they missed, and they still aired it again two days later. The narrator's family was paid around £1,817 in goods and cash. The report assures us that sanctions checks were performed and 'no positive results returned'. One wonders how the family of a senior Hamas official could possibly escape UK sanctions, given that Hamas is a fully proscribed terrorist organisation under British law, but then again the money was paid to the narrator's sister, intended for his mother. Even more startling is the admission that the BBC 'was only made aware of the disturbance fee paid for the Narrator after the broadcast of the Programme.' Aside from the Hamas minister's son, perhaps the most brazen deception in the film was also swept under the rug in just two short paragraphs of the BBC's report; its use of non-sequential editing in a sequence portraying a supposed mass-casualty incident. The programme presents us with a child volunteer paramedic (an entirely unbelievable notion anyway) responding to an Israeli airstrike. It opens with a graphic reading '245 days of war' signalling to viewers that the events depicted occurred on a single, specific date. The narration references a particular airstrike and location, accompanied by a map pinpointing the area, further reinforcing the impression that this is a chronological slice of a real event. And yet, the child appears in multiple shots wearing different shoes and with visibly different hair lengths. He looks freshly shorn in one scene and noticeably untrimmed in another. The only constant is a T-shirt, which the BBC admits created an illusion of continuity. The report concedes the sequence 'included scenes shot on different days', and that the impression of a continuous event was 'reinforced by the fact that the child was wearing the same clothes throughout'. Despite this orchestrated consistency, the report ludicrously claims: '[The sequence] did not make any assertions as to how what was shown fitted into the broader chronology of the Israel-Gaza war.' This seems to me to be indefensible. The film used date-stamped graphics, mapped coordinates, location-specific narration, and a carefully coordinated wardrobe, all designed to give the appearance of a single, continuous event. Yet the BBC insists that audiences were not materially misled, and that no editorial breach occurred. It is a blatant exercise in gaslighting, and an affront to even the most basic principles of journalistic integrity. The mistranslation of the Arabic word Yahud, 'Jew', as 'Israelis' is another glaring deception. The report flatly states: 'I do not find there to have been any editorial breaches in respect of the Programme's translation.' Instead, it claims: 'The translations in this Programme did not risk misleading audiences on what the people speaking meant.' This is not merely wrong, it is a conscious sanitisation of genocidal anti-Semitic rhetoric. The fact that Palestinians might use the word 'Jew' and 'Israeli' interchangeably is rather the point. The reason for their animosity towards Israel is precisely because it is the Jewish homeland and the world's only Jewish state. Why else would they use that word? The refusal to translate the word accurately distorts the ideological nature of the conflict. The BBC had ample opportunity to catch these failures. According to the BBC's own investigation, the narrator was identified in the early development stage having previously featured on Channel 4 News. Internal emails from December and January show that multiple BBC staff raised concerns about social media vetting, Hamas affiliations, and whether narration was being scripted for propaganda purposes. Yet these warnings were ignored or brushed aside. Incredibly, a mere footnote reveals: 'There was a reference in the Programme's Commissioning Specification to the Production Company understanding their obligations under the Terrorism Act, which it was stated they would get briefed on. I understand that they were not in fact briefed on these obligations.' Another footnote discussing the Hamas affiliation of the narrator's father mentions a post-broadcast phone call in which the production team allegedly said they 'had not told [the BBC] earlier because they did not want to scare [them].' The production company denies this, but the report admits 'the balance of evidence… supports the conclusion that a comment of this nature was made', but still insists it cannot be read as intentional deception. Despite all this, the BBC concludes smugly: 'I find that the correct formal mechanisms for an independent commission were followed'. This is an insult to the intelligence of every viewer, every Briton and every Jew. If this is what editorial compliance looks like, then those mechanisms are unfit for purpose, and the BBC is a sham organisation. This travesty is not an isolated error. It follows years of documented bias, mistranslation, double standards, and selective outrage. What the BBC has now produced is not an act of accountability, it is an act of institutional self-preservation. A cover-up of a cover-up. A report written not to confront failure, but to excuse it. And in doing so, the BBC has confirmed precisely what so many critics already feared: that when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the BBC is no longer a broadcaster, it is a partisan actor.
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
BBC Gaza Doc Fallout Continues as Former Chief Accuses Corp of Being 'Manipulated by Terrorists'
The fallout continues over the BBC's airing of a documentary narrated by the son of a Hamas official. Earlier this week, the corporation apologized and removed Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, about the lives of three children caught in the Israel-Gaza war, from its streaming service BBC iPlayer. It was discovered that one of the 13-year-old subjects, Abdullah Al-Yazouri, is the son of Hamas' deputy minister of agriculture. More from The Hollywood Reporter 'Piggy Bank' Explores the Climate Crisis Via a Mix of Self-Experiment, Mockumentary, Fact and Fiction Inside the 2025 Brit Awards: Sabrina Carpenter Shocks, Millie Bobby Brown Gushes, Tender Liam Payne Tribute Leaves Arena Still Brat Brit Awards 2025: Charli XCX Wins Four, Chappell Roan Gets Two Honors A statement from the corp said it takes 'full responsibility' for 'unacceptable flaws' in commissioning the program, stating that production company behind the doc Hoyo Films acknowledged that the BBC were not informed of Abdullah Al-Yazouri's Hamas ties. The Sunday Times reported that the child was paid around £700 for his part in the film, given to him via his sister's back account. Director-general Tim Davie has requested that Peter Johnston, the director for editorial complaints and reviews who carried out the investigation into Russell Brand's behavior, lead a fact-finding review of the episode, also according to the newspaper. While the documentary has been permanently removed from iPlayer, industry figures such as actors Riz Ahmed, Khalid Abdalla, Miriam Margolyes and director Mike Leigh are among the 900+ signatories of an open letter published by Artists for Palestine U.K. demanding it be reinstated on the platform. 'Beneath this political football are children who are in the most dire circumstances of their young lives,' the letter reads. 'As programme-makers, we are extremely alarmed by the intervention of partisan political actors on this issue, and what this means for the future of broadcasting in this country.' Now, the former controller of BBC1 has weighed in. Danny Cohen, who was in the top job from 2013-2015, told The Sunday Times that the BBC has allowed itself to be 'manipulated by terrorists'. He called on U.K. culture secretary Lisa Nandy to ensure 'wider systemic issues of anti-Israel bias' are explored at the BBC in an independent investigation, rather than allowing it 'to mark its own homework'. Nandy has insisted there was a 'robust' exchange with BBC chair Samir Shah. Cohen added: 'Given the scale of the BBC's failings, it feels absolutely appropriate for the culture secretary to ensure this [independent investigation] happens. The ultimate failing here is by the BBC's leadership. They should not be allowed to just investigate themselves… the journalistic failings of this programme are part of a wider system failure at the BBC.' The BBC Board released a statement on Thursday addressing the controversy: 'The subject matter of the documentary was clearly a legitimate area to explore, but nothing is more important than trust and transparency in our journalism. While the Board appreciates that mistakes can be made, the mistakes here are significant and damaging to the BBC.' Further issues around the documentary have come to light painting a grim picture for the BBC. A second child who appeared in the documentary, 11-year-old Zakaria, was photographed holding a gun besides a Hamas fighter. Additionally, a camera operator on the doc appears to have shown support on social media for the Oct. 7 massacre in 2023, when Hamas killed around 1,200 people. The operator shared a video of the killing of an Israeli soldier on X (formerly Twitter), saying it should be watched 'a million' times. When contacted for comment by The Hollywood Reporter, the BBC redirected THR to their Thursday statement, which can be read in full here. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Highest-Profile Harris Endorsements: Taylor Swift, George Clooney, Bruce Springsteen and More Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2024: Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Olivia Rodrigo and More
Express Tribune
01-03-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
BBC apologises for serious flaws in Gaza documentary
Listen to article The BBC has issued a formal apology for "serious flaws" in its documentary Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone after concerns were raised over the affiliations of one of the contributors. The documentary, which aired on BBC Two on February 16, was removed from the BBC iPlayer five days later. The removal followed the revelation that 14-year-old Abdullah Al-Yazouri, the film's narrator, is the son of Dr. Ayman Al-Yazouri, a former deputy minister of agriculture in Gaza's Hamas-run government. In a statement, the BBC explained that its initial review revealed the production company, Hoyo Films, had failed to inform the broadcaster of Abdullah's father's Hamas connection. The BBC stated that the independent production company had been asked multiple times about any potential affiliations with Hamas, but they did not disclose the information. The BBC also confirmed that the production company had paid Abdullah's mother a limited sum for his narration, though they were seeking further assurance that no money was paid to Hamas or its affiliates. The controversy has sparked significant public backlash, with more than 500 media professionals, including actors Gary Lineker, Anita Rani, and Riz Ahmed, condemning the BBC's decision to pull the documentary. An open letter signed by several prominent figures urged the broadcaster to reinstate the programme, calling it "an essential piece of journalism" that offered a rare and important perspective on Palestinian children's experiences in Gaza. The BBC has launched a full review of the film and its production process. It has also initiated an audit of the financial transactions involved, ensuring no funds were directed to Hamas or its affiliates. The BBC said it had failed in its due diligence, which impacted the corporation's reputation. The removal of the documentary also led to protests outside the BBC's London headquarters, with some critics accusing the broadcaster of censorship. Campaign groups such as Campaign Against Antisemitism expressed their anger, calling the BBC's actions a 'new low' and accusing it of becoming a mouthpiece for terrorists. The BBC is continuing to investigate whether any disciplinary action is warranted over the matter. The BBC further stated that it would expedite complaints through its Executive Complaints Unit and that the review process would be comprehensive. Despite the apology, the broadcaster made it clear that the documentary would not be broadcast again in its current form.
Arab News
28-02-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Is the BBC biased in its Gaza-Israel coverage?
DUBAI: The BBC's decision to remove its documentary on Gaza has reignited public debate over the broadcaster's pro-Israel bias in its coverage of the latest war and sparked concerns over the influence of the pro-Israel lobby on the channel's impartiality. Last week, the broadcaster faced backlash from pro-Israel advocates, prominent Jewish media figures, and Israeli representatives in the UK government when it emerged that Abdullah Al-Yazouri, the 14-year-old main narrator in the BBC Two documentary, 'Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone,' was the son of Ayman Al-Yazouri, a deputy agriculture minister who worked for the Hamas-run government. After withdrawing the documentary from its iPlayer service, the BBC was once again criticized by academics, public figures and TV personalities who argued that the channel should have maintained its journalistic impartiality and independence. The channel's critics said the removal of the documentary, which provides the rare perspective of a child on the devastating consequences of the war on Gaza, reflected the BBC's pro-Israel biased coverage since the war began, further deepening the dehumanization of Palestinians and marginalizing their voices. 'The BBC should not have succumbed to pressure from pro-Israeli groups and the British government, who should not have intervened,' Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab British Understanding, told Arab News. 'What is extraordinary is the vast gap between how this documentary was maliciously depicted as being Hamas propaganda and the reality of the film itself, which is a child's eye view of life in war-torn Gaza that does not get into politics but is a very human story of how Palestinian children survived day-to-day,' noted Doyle. The documentary, filmed over nine months in the run-up to January's ceasefire deal, features three children among the main characters navigating their lives amid bombings and vast destruction caused by the war on Gaza. Doyle urged the BBC to review its decision 'in a very independent fashion free from external interference.' The boy's family connection with the Hamas-run government employee drew the interference of UK Secretary of Culture Lisa Nandy, who said she expressed 'deep concerns' during a meeting with the BBC's Director-General Tim Davie and urged the channel to report 'what happened and who knew what when.' After conducting an investigation, the BBC issued an apology on Thursday for 'serious flaws' in the making of the documentary and said it has 'no plans' to broadcast it again in its current form, despite the pleas of 500 media professionals and filmmakers, including Gary Lineker and Juliet Stevenson, who demanded the channel reinstate the documentary, calling it an 'essential piece of journalism' that 'amplifies voices so often silenced.' Doyle noted that the BBC's decision renders work that 'humanizes Palestinians and treats Palestinian children as human beings with rights with aspirations, with hopes, with fears' as 'illegitimate.' It also endorses a dominant narrative that militarizes Palestinians and associates them with armed groups, according to the BBC's critics. Loreley Hahn-Herrera, lecturer in global media and digital cultures at SOAS University of London, said condemning the documentary as influenced by Hamas does not consider that anyone who works in the government is not necessarily a member of its armed wing. Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization in the UK, US and Europe. 'Ayman Al-Yazouri is a mid-level bureaucrat who was educated in the UK. I don't think it is fair to make children guilty by association, which further feeds into the narrative of linking all Palestinians in Gaza to Hamas and criminalizing Palestinian men and stripping them away from their civilian status,' Hahn-Herrera told Arab News. The first five minutes of the documentary depict Palestinians condemning Hamas and its late leader Yahya Sinwar as they run away from the bombings. 'The documentary shows kids traumatized by war and actively denouncing Hamas. This challenges the ongoing discourse coming from within Israel and its supporters in the West that associates everyone in Gaza with Hamas and, therefore, makes them targeted terrorists,' Hahn-Herrera said. She added: 'Of the very few political statements that were made throughout the documentary, they were all against Hamas.' More seriously, Hahn-Herrera noted, the BBC succumbing to pro-Israeli pressure interferes with its credibility as the independent institution it claims to be and challenges its notion of autonomy from the government, which it wants the public to believe. When reached out to by Arab News for comment, a BBC spokesperson pointed to the channel's Friday statement indicating that an investigation is ongoing. The BBC, among other Western outlets, has been facing growing accusations of predominantly featuring Israeli spokespeople and allies over Palestinian voices in its Gaza war coverage. In November, The Independent reported that more than 100 BBC employees, in a letter to Davie and CEO Deborah Turness, accused the channel of reproducing and failing to challenge the narratives of Israeli officials that have 'systematically dehumanized Palestinians,' while sidelining the Palestinian perspective and failing to contextualize the war within the broader history of 76-year occupation and a tight 18-year Gaza blockade. Among the concerns noted by staff were 'dehumanizing and misleading headlines' that erased Israel's responsibility, such as 'Hind Rajab, 6, found dead in Gaza days after phone calls for help,' given to an article about a 6-year-old girl who was shot by the Israeli military in Gaza in January 2024. Other concerns included omissions of coverage, such as the failure to live broadcast South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice on Jan. 11 but choosing to live broadcast Israel's defense the following day. The Independent's report was followed a month later by an article titled, 'The BBC's Civil War on Gaza,' published on Drop Site, an investigative news platform, featuring 13 BBC journalists who claimed that their objections over the biased coverage were brushed aside. The 9,000-word article cited an analysis that revealed a 'profound imbalance' in the channel's way of reporting Palestinian and Israeli deaths, arguing that Israeli victims were more humanized. It also detailed accounts of bias including the use of stronger terms like 'massacre,' 'slaughter' or 'atrocities' when describing Hamas' crimes while failing to use the same terms to describe Israel's crackdown on Gaza that killed over 46,000 people, the majority of whom were women and children. The BBC, at the time, denied allegations of bias and defended its coverage, insisting it 'strives to live up to our responsibility to deliver the most trusted and impartial news.' A BBC spokesperson said at the time: 'We are very clear with our audiences on the limitations put on our reporting — including the lack of access into Gaza and restricted access to parts of Lebanon, and our continued efforts to get reporters into those areas.' The debate over the dominance of Israeli narratives in Western media during conflicts with the Palestinians is not new. A 2011 groundbreaking study by Greg Philo and Mike Berry titled 'More Bad News from Israel' showcased how the BBC's editorial team faced constant pressure and scrutiny when reporting on Israel and Palestine, making it difficult to give a clear account of the Palestinian perspective. 'The pressures of organized public relations, lobbying and systematic criticism together with the privileging of Israeli perspectives by political and public figures, can affect the climate within which journalists operate,' the authors said. Ample academic research has analyzed coverage of previous Palestine-Israel wars, the majority of which revealed a disproportionate emphasis on Israeli perspectives while downplaying Palestinian suffering. If anything, Hahn-Herrera said, the BBC's recent documentary shared a rare perspective with Western audiences that humanized the suffering of Palestinian children. 'It shows that Palestinians even under occupation, even under constant military attacks, want to have a normal life. It demonstrated that despite all the difficulties and the challenges that Palestinians are facing, they are a resourceful population, and they continue to try to live in normalcy as much as possible,' she said.
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Mike Leigh, Riz Ahmed Among Media Figures Calling Out BBC Over Gaza Doc Controversy
The BBC is embroiled in controversy after a documentary on the Israel-Gaza war featured narration from the son of a senior Hamas official. The corporation has removed Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone from its streaming service BBC iPlayer while it carries out 'further due diligence.' Following four teenage boys through the conflict in Gaza, pro-Israel protestors are in uproar after discovering one of the 13-year-old subjects, Abdullah Al-Yazouri, is the son of Hamas' deputy minister of agriculture. More from The Hollywood Reporter Warner Bros. Discovery Turns $677M DTC Profit for 2024, Streaming Subs Grow to 116.9M Killer Billionaires, Generational Poverty and Michael Haneke: Austrian Cinema Takes Center Stage at the Glasgow Film Fest Sony, 'The Crown' Producer Left Bank Hire BBC Content Chief Charlotte Moore for Dual Role 'The BBC has become a mouthpiece for terror. It cannot call terrorism by its name. The BBC has become a spokesperson for terrorists,' said Gideon Falter, the chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), which organized a demonstration outside the BBC headquarters in central London earlier this week. Photos from the event showed protestors holding up placards that read 'spokespeople for terrorists.' Other signs showed Hamas militants with BBC headbands. The CAA submitted a Freedom of Information request to the BBC, demanding to know if payments were made in relation to the doc — to whom and in what amounts. The group said: 'This is an opportunity for the BBC to come clean on whether lisence fee funds have gone to Hamas.' U.K. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said she spoke with BBC director-general Tim Davie about the film, ensuring that 'no money paid has fallen into the hands of Hamas.' A statement from the BBC read: '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.' The corporation said it was not informed of the teenager's family connection in advance by the film's production company. However, following its removal from iPlayer, industry figures are now calling on the BBC to reinstate the program. Soccer star Gary Lineker, actors Riz Ahmed, Khalid Abdalla, Miriam Margolyes and director Mike Leigh are among the 800+ signatories of an open letter published by Artists for Palestine U.K. on Wednesday. The media professionals, including 12 BBC staff, sent a letter to Davie, as well as chair of the board Samir Shah, outgoing chief content officer Charlotte Moore, and head of news and current affairs Deborah Turness. 'Beneath this political football are children who are in the most dire circumstances of their young lives,' the letter reads. 'This is what must remain at the heart of this discussion. As programme-makers, we are extremely alarmed by the intervention of partisan political actors on this issue, and what this means for the future of broadcasting in this country.' The letter also dubbed the campaign 'racist' and 'dehumanising.' It called on the BBC to 'reject attempts to have the documentary permanently removed or subjected to undue disavowals.' The BBC's board is expected to discuss the film on Thursday. The BBC did not immediately respond The Hollywood Reporter's request for comment. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 20 Times the Oscars Got It Wrong The Best Anti-Fascist Films of All Time Dinosaurs, Zombies and More 'Wicked': The Most Anticipated Movies of 2025
