BBC review says pulled Gaza documentary did not break impartiality rules
A BBC investigation into the airing of a documentary on children in Gaza, narrated by the son of a Palestinian official, has found that the corporation did not breach its impartiality rules.
Just four days after the documentary, Gaza: How To Survive a Warzone, aired on 17 February, the BBC pulled it from its streaming platform, iPlayer, following an intense campaign by pro-Israel groups and rival British media outlets.
Pro-Israel activist David Collier alleged that the boy who narrated the film, Abdullah al-Yazuri, was the son of a deputy minister in Gaza's government and was related to a co-founder of Hamas, Ibrahim al-Yazuri, who died in 2021.
Collier, whose revelations sparked a national scandal, described Abdullah as the "child of Hamas royalty", a claim later repeated by mainstream British newspapers.
Monday's long-awaited review, which was conducted by Peter Johnston, the corporation’s head of Editorial Complaints and Reviews who is independent of its management, found that three members of Hoyo Films, the independent production company that produced the film, knew of the father's position as deputy minister of agriculture, but no-one within the BBC knew this before the broadcasting of the documentary.
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The review said the BBC had breached its editorial guidelines in terms of accuracy by failing to disclose the boy's ties to Hamas. However, the review found that there were no other breaches of editorial guidelines, including impartiality.
It also found no evidence "to support the suggestion that the narrator's father or family influenced the content of the programme in any way".
The Media watchdog Ofcom said later on Monday that it would conduct its own investigation into the airing of the documentary.
The BBC's director general, Tim Davie, had told MPs the broadcaster had received hundreds of complaints alleging the documentary was biased against Israel, as well as hundreds more criticising the programme's removal from its streaming service.
Middle East Eye revealed earlier this year that the boy's father was in fact a technocrat with a scientific rather than political background and had previously worked for the UAE’s education ministry and studied at British universities.
The narrator's father also disputed the allegations against him, saying his full name is Ayman Hasan Abdullah al-Yazuri, whereas the Hamas founder's full name was Ibrahim Fares Ahmed al-Yazuri.
He added that his father was named Hasan and died in 1975.
"Our family is not as some claim," he told MEE, insisting he was not "Hamas royalty".
"There are many individuals within our family who are affiliated with Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), including some in leadership positions within these movements."
Ministers, bureaucrats and civil servants in Gaza are appointed by Hamas, while in the West Bank, they are appointed by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.
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