On July 14th the BBC published the findings of its internal review into the documentary ‘Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone’ which it had de-platformed in February after one of the main child narrators was revealed to be the son of a Hamas official.
A BBC Media Centre press release described the breach of editorial guidelines identified by Peter Johnston as follows:
“Mr Johnston’s review finds that the programme breached Editorial Guideline 3.3.17 on accuracy, which deals with misleading audiences. His report describes the background on the narrator’s father as “critical information”, which was not shared with the BBC before broadcast. “Regardless of how the significance or otherwise of the Narrator’s father’s position was judged, the audience should have been informed about this,” his report says.
While the Review does not consider that HOYO Films intentionally misled the BBC about the narrator’s father’s position, it finds the independent production company bears most responsibility for this failure. However, it concludes that the BBC also bears some responsibility. The BBC takes this finding very seriously, acknowledging it has ultimate editorial responsibility for the programme as broadcast.”
Johnston’s findings include an explanation of how that failure came about: [emphasis added]
“The position of the Narrator’s father as a Deputy Minister of Agriculture within the Hamas-run government first became known to three members of the Production Company at a relatively early stage in production, in July 2024. The members of the Production Company who were aware of this connection did not, at any stage prior to the broadcast of the Programme, share this information with the BBC.
The Production Company’s evidence was that their initial assessment of this information was that it was a civilian or technocratic position. This understanding was supported, in their view, by their perception that the Narrator’s father was not taking the precautions expected of someone who held a political or military position within Hamas and who may be a potential target of IDF action, such as not moving around openly in Gaza. The Production Company also told me that it reached a view that because the Gazan civil government (other than the Health Ministry) had not been functioning since 2023, the father was no longer in employment. 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. The Production Company understood that Gazans themselves separate the civil government in Gaza from Hamas.
The Production Company has told me that there was uncertainty at this initial stage as to whether they could even use the Narrator in the Programme, as logistical difficulties in meeting with him were increasing the risks for the crew in necessitating additional travel around Gaza. However, in late August 2024, crew in Gaza were able to meet with the Narrator and his father. The Director said that he was assured by crew members with experience in Gaza that it was safe to meet the Narrator’s father, because his position was purely civil. The purpose of the August 2024 meeting was to obtain the father’s permission to film the Narrator, and I have been told by the Production Company that there was no discussion of the father’s position at this meeting.”
And:
“The Production Company did not receive (or ask for) guidance from the BBC on the specific background checks they should be conducting (beyond checking social media). Despite clear Editorial Policy advice about the importance of establishing that nobody featured had any connections to Hamas, there does not appear to have been proper interrogation of the specific type of background checks appropriate to achieve this objective. In response to queries raised internally about whether particular background checks had been made, the tendency was for the BBC to ask the Production Company whether checks had been undertaken, as opposed to the BBC asking what precise checks had been done and reviewing and checking the results of those checks.”
The BBC Media Centre’s press release also includes the following:
“BBC News CEO Deborah Turness says: At the heart of this programme were powerful and important stories that need to be told. But it’s clear that in this programme we made a significant mistake.”
However, two days later it emerged that not only the production company was “under the impression […] that there was a clear distinction between officials and ministers working for the Gazan civil government, and Hamas”.
“I think it’s really important that we are clear that Abdullah’s father was a deputy agriculture minister and therefore, you know, was a member of the Hamas-run government, which is different to being part of the military wing of Hamas. And I think externally, it’s often simplified that, you know, he was in Hamas and I think it’s an important point of detail that we need to continually remind people of the difference and of that connection.”
As noted by the Jewish Chronicle:
“Hamas is proscribed in its entirety as a terrorist organisation in the UK and being a member of either the military or political wing of the group is a criminal offence.”
The Jewish News reports the BBC’s rather creative ‘explanation’ of Turness’ remarks during that staff meeting:
“A BBC spokesperson said: “The BBC constantly makes clear on our programmes and platforms that Hamas are a proscribed terrorist organisation by the UK Government and others. We are also clear that we need to describe to our audiences the complexities of life in Gaza, including within the structure of Hamas, which has run the civilian functions of Gaza.
“Deborah Turness was answering a question about how we described the father of the narrator in our Warzone film. She did not imply that Hamas are not a single terrorist organisation. As we have said, there was an editorial breach in this film, and we are sorry. We will not show the film again in its current form and we should not have used this child as the narrator.””
Jonathan Sacerdoti reports that during the same staff meeting, a question from a BBC correspondent called Ione Wells was also discussed:
“Given the plans to introduce extra diligence and signposting for contributors from Gaza regarding any connections, however distant, with Hamas… do we plan to do the same with the other side of the wall? Almost every contributor we use from Israel also has a link to the IDF.”
The fact that a BBC journalist who has occasionally covered the Middle East found fit to equate the armed forces of a democratic country with an internationally proscribed terrorist organisation beggars belief. The revelation that the BBC’s CEO of News still thinks that there is a “difference” between wings of the same terrorist organisation (despite her own government having clarified nearly four years ago that no such difference exists) does nothing to persuade the BBC’s funding public that the corporation’s management takes Peter Johnston’s findings “very seriously”.
