Back to the BBC, which is better at making the news than breaking it these days. This afternoon a report has found that the Beeb’s Gaza documentary that was narrated by the son of a Hamas official breached editorial guidelines and misled audiences. The review adds that viewers ‘should have been informed’ about the identity of the film’s narrator – which was known by three people at the production company but, however, not by anyone at the BBC ahead of the documentary’s release. The head of BBC News, Deborah Turness, apologised today over the BBC’s lack of oversight and admitted this afternoon that: ‘At BBC News, we are fully accountable. And we didn’t run those questions to ground.’ Oo er.
Turness’s apology comes after a rather controversial Gaza documentary – titled ‘Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone’ – was first released by the corporation and then pulled from streaming services after it emerged the narrator was not only the son of a Hamas minister but was paid for his part in the film. At the time, Turness sent an email around her staff taking aim at the production company Hoyo Films before confessing that the institution was partly responsible for the problems with the documentary. ‘Nothing is more important than the trust that audiences have in our journalism,’ she wrote. ‘This incident has damaged that trust. While the intent of the documentary was aligned with our purpose – to tell the story of what is happening around the world, even in the most difficult and dangerous places – the processes and execution of this programme fell short of our expectations.’
Today’s report slammed the Beeb for not being ‘sufficiently proactive’, noting that there was a ‘lack of critical oversight’ of unanswered questions over the identity of the film’s narrator. However the probe concluded that payments to the boy and his family of £1,817 were in fact ‘reasonable’. When quizzed today on the BBC’s own World At One show, Turness admits that staff at the BBC ‘should have known’. She added that ‘their questions should have been answered at the many times of asking’ by the production company and says that the Beeb ‘should have investigated more’. You can say that again!
And even Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy waded in, pressing the Beeb on why no one has been fired yet. When quizzed on this today, Turness responded cagily: ‘I just think it’s not right and not appropriate for me to pre-judge and pre-determine a process that needs to have its time.’ Could heads roll over the whole debacle? Watch this space…
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