BBC adviser asked ‘is documentary clean of Hamas'? Bosses never bothered to reply
Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone was categorised as a 'high risk' project by the BBC, yet was broadcast without crucial questions being answered.
A month before the broadcast, an editorial policy adviser at the BBC asked: 'Has due diligence been done on those featured to ensure, e.g. the lead boy doesn't have links in any way to [Hamas]? I'm sure it has…'
The question was never answered, but the programme went ahead.
Three members of Hoyo Films, the independent production company that made the documentary, knew the narrator's family background but did not tell the BBC about it, the report found.
They paid Abdullah Alyazouri's family £795 for his contribution, and also gave him a gift card for a computer game and a second-hand mobile phone, to a total value of £1,817.
The day after the documentary was broadcast, it emerged that Abdullah, the 13-year-old narrator, was the son of Ayman Alyazouri, a deputy minister for agriculture in the Hamas-led government.
An internal review conducted by Peter Johnston, the BBC's director of editorial complaints, ruled that the documentary breached editorial guidelines on accuracy by failing to disclose 'critical information' about Abdullah's family history.
But it cleared the BBC of breaching impartiality guidelines, despite Samir Shah, the BBC chairman, earlier saying that the row was a 'dagger to the heart' of the broadcaster's reputation for impartiality.
Ofcom announced that it was launching an investigation into the BBC 'under our rule which states that factual programmes must not materially mislead the audience'.
Deborah Turness, the chief executive of BBC News and Current Affairs, apologised for the 'mistake' but refused to say whether anyone would face the sack.
She viewed the documentary at a special screening ahead of its television broadcast, but defended her role. She said: 'I didn't know then what I know now.'
'Unflinching' documentary
Gaza: How To Survive A War Zone was billed as an 'unflinching' documentary narrated by Abdullah, a Palestinian boy living in the so-called 'safe zone'. It was broadcast on Feb 17.
'My name is Abdullah. I'm 13 years old. I'm stuck here in Gaza. Have you ever wondered what you'd do if your world was destroyed?' he asks, leading viewers through the rubble. He explains that he attended 'the best school in Gaza, the British school' but now lives in a tent.
Other children featured in the film include Renad, a young girl who presents a TikTok cookery show, and Zakaria, an 11-year-old who works as a fixer at one of Gaza's hospitals. The documentary includes scenes from inside the hospital, including a doctor in an operating theatre holding up a severed arm and shouting: 'Look what the Israelis are doing to the children of Gaza.'
Jamie Roberts and Yousef Hammash, the film's two directors, remotely directed two Gazan cameramen, as Israel does not allow foreign journalists to operate inside Gaza.
What the filmmakers knew
Hoyo Films, the production company engaged by the BBC, spotted Abdullah on Channel 4 in April 2024 and approached him to become a contributor.
Two months later, they submitted a 'taster' tape to the BBC in which he appeared prominently.
By July, three members of the production company – the director, the co-director and one crew member in Gaza – had become aware that Abdullah's father was Ayman Alyazouri, according to the report. They met the father in August to gain permission to film Abdullah.
But Hoyo did not at any stage share Abdullah's family background with the BBC.
Interviewed for the report, they claimed to have reached a view that Abdullah's father was in 'a civilian or technocratic position', rather than a political or military one. This was supported by the fact that, when they met him, Mr Alyazouri was moving openly around Gaza and not taking security precautions.
In addition, the Gazan civil government – other than the health ministry – had not been functioning since 2023, so they considered him to be 'no longer in employment'.
The report noted: 'The production company was also under the impression, whether rightly or wrongly, that there was a clear distinction between officials and ministers working for the Gazan civil government and Hamas.'
BBC failures
The BBC identified early on in the production that the documentary carried 'reputational risk' and a 'due impartiality challenge', adding it to the internal managed risk programme list.
One of the commissioning editors sought advice from BBC colleagues who identified the need for due diligence and background checks on the contributors and crew, including potential links or affiliations to Hamas.
The editorial policy unit was consulted for advice, and provided notes. One adviser from the unit asked on Dec 19 last year: 'I presume we have checked out the bona fides of the people we use?'
On Jan 8, a BBC commissioning editor sent a WhatsApp to Hoyo asking if there was a paper trail on the background checking of contributors. Hoyo replied: 'No – we did a social media check with those that are online and [a] check with local community members – all clean of Hamas.'
On Jan 12, they asked: 'Has due diligence been done on those featured to ensure e.g. the lead boy doesn't have links in any way to [Hamas]? I'm sure it has…' And on Jan 15, a note from a member of the BBC commissioning team asked if anyone had checked Abdullah's family background.
But at a zoom meeting on Jan 22 to address any outstanding issues, these last two questions were not answered.
The report found that the production company carried most of the responsibility for the failure to inform the BBC but that it did not intentionally mislead the broadcaster. However, it added that putting Abdullah forward as the narrator – given his background – was wrong.
But it also said the BBC 'bears some responsibility', first for being 'insufficiently proactive' in failing to scrutinise the role of the narrator at an early stage, and then for its 'lack of critical oversight of unanswered or partially answered questions'.
The BBC should not have signed off on the film without having the answer to every question, the report concluded.
Narrator's payment
Abdullah's adult sister was paid a £795 'disturbance fee' for his participation in the programme, while Abdullah was given a second-hand mobile phone and a gift card for a computer game – together, this amounted to a total value of £1,817.
The production company said the money was intended for Abdullah's mother, as his legal guardian, but was paid via the sister as the mother did not have a Bank of Palestine account.
In his report, Mr Johnston concluded: 'I do not consider the amount or purpose of any of these payments to have been outside of the range of what might be reasonable.'
The fallout
Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, previously asked why nobody had been fired over the documentary, although her language on Monday was noticeably calmer.
Tim Davie, the BBC director-general, said he was sorry for the 'significant failing' in relation to accuracy.
Ofcom launched its own investigation into whether audiences were misled.
The BBC promised 'accountability' but Ms Turness refused to be drawn on whether anyone would lose their job over the mistakes. She apologised for the error but sought to blame Hoyo Films, saying: 'The questions should have been answered by the independent production company at the many times of asking.'
As for the future of the documentary, it may be re-edited into shorter films that could be made available on iPlayer.
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