The Beeb is better at becoming the news than making it these days. The last fortnight has seen the corporation come under fire after a rather controversial Gaza documentary – whose child narrator was, er, the son of a Hamas minister – was first released and then pulled from streaming services. Now Steerpike has had sight of a rather interesting email sent by the corporation’s CEO, Deborah Turness, about the whole affair…
Writing to staff about the doc, titled ‘Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone’, Turness first admitted that these were ‘turbulent times’ for the corporation, before tacitly reminding her staff that when it comes to news stories, ‘we have to get it right’. Talk about stating the obvious, eh?
In a statement, the Beeb has confessed that it is partly responsible for problems with the documentary – while also piling blame on the production company Hoyo Films. The public service broadcaster noted:
The review has identified serious flaws in the making of this programme. Some of these were made by the production company, and some by the BBC; all of them are unacceptable. BBC News takes full responsibility for these and the impact that these have had on the Corporation’s reputation. We apologise for this.
Nothing is more important than the trust that audiences have in our journalism. 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. Although the programme was made by an independent production company, who were commissioned to deliver a fully compliant documentary, the BBC has ultimate editorial responsibility for this programme as broadcast.
On the identity of the child narrator with family links to terrorist group Hamas, the Beeb said:
The independent production company was asked in writing a number of times by the BBC about any potential connections he and his family might have with Hamas. Since transmission, they have acknowledged that they knew that the boy’s father was a Deputy Agriculture Minister in the Hamas Government; they have also acknowledged that they never told the BBC this fact. It was then the BBC’s own failing that we did not uncover that fact and the documentary was aired.
More than that, however the BBC is now probing who payments for the film were made to, after Hoyo Films admitted they had paid the boy’s mother, via his sister’s bank account, a sum for his role. Now the Beeb’s director general has passed the matter along to the Editorial Complaints Unit, separate from BBC News, for an investigation led by the unit’s director Peter Johnston. And, more than that, the corporation has revealed the documentary will not be returning to streaming services, adding: ‘We have no plans to broadcast the programme again in its current form.’ Crikey. It certainly raises questions about the types of programmes licence fee payers are funding…
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