The BBC‘s director-general Tim Davie has admitted there were “unanswered questions” that should have been “followed up” over the company’s scandal-hit Gaza documentary.
Davie defended his journalists to the U.K.’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee and claimed no one needs “any prodding” on an independent investigation while speaking at a parliamentary inquiry in London.
Last 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, leading to widespread accusations against the BBC, including being “manipulated by terrorists.”
“Nothing’s more important than we are trusted,” Davie began alongside board chair Samir Shah on Tuesday. “I think there’s a lot of frustration and disappointment. It’s not about the BBC and people like myself, but we’re very sorry to the audience, because we don’t want to be in a position where we have flaws in the program-making.”
After Davie defended his journalists who are under “enormous pressure”, he added: “At the end of the day as editor-in-chief, I have to be secure — not only editorially, but in the making of that film — and… I lost trust in that film. Therefore I have taken the decision to take it off iPlayer… There were unanswered questions from the BBC,” he added. “That should have been followed up.”
“I’m not ruling it out,” Davie said when asked if the doc could be re-uploaded following appropriate edits. Media figures such as actors Riz Ahmed, Khalid Abdalla, Miriam Margolyes and director Mike Leigh are among the 1000+ signatories of an open letter published by Artists for Palestine U.K. demanding it be reinstated on the platform.
“We don’t need any prodding,” he said in reference to an investigation on the economics of who was paid and when, as well as organizing an independent review of the film. “As I understand it today, the BBC has only made one payment. This was for a license fee to the program maker, the independent [company, to make the film]. The initial assessment of the economics showed that there was a small payment to the sister [of Abdullah]; it’s a totally normal payment because the boy recorded the narration and went to a studio to do it… [Hoyo Films] have written to us very clearly saying no money has gone to Hamas, but absolutely have to do that work.”
Shah backed up his colleague and said there will be an independent review of the film. Though he was candid over his personal “shock” at seeing the “serious failings on both sides” when the interim report came in. “The standards of the BBC are very good,” Shah said. “They’re very strong… So I worry that it wasn’t so much the processes that were at fault, [but] people weren’t doing their job.”
When asked about the petition from Artists for Palestine U.K., Shah responded: “I want to make it quite clear that the idea that we see what’s happening in Gaza through the eyes of children is a good documentary idea. I do not want anybody to think that’s not the case. What we’re talking about is the execution of that idea and the level of trust that took place in the BBC, and the independent production company.”
A BBC spokesperson told THR on Sunday: “During the production process, 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.”
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