Culture secretary and Wigan’s Labour MP Lisa Nandy has raised “deep concern” about BBC2’s contentious doc, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, after the BBC removed it from iPlayer last week.
On Friday, the BBC pulled the Hoyo Films doc from its on-demand platform pending “further due diligence” with the indie producer over some of the young contributors’ links to proscribed terrorist group Hamas.
Nandy met with BBC director general Tim Davie yesterday to discuss the doc, as well as the findings of the corporation’s review into the actions of former Radio One DJ Tim Westwood, which were also published yesterday, urging the director general to provide answers as to the corporation’s editorial processes around the doc.
“It is essential that the BBC maintains the highest standards of reporting and governance that the public rightly expects,” Nandy said. “In my discussion with the BBC director general, I expressed my deep concern about the issues around their recent documentary on Gaza and I pressed for answers on the checks and due diligence that the BBC carried out.
“It is paramount that the investigation the BBC is conducting sheds light on what happened and who knew what when. I expect to be kept informed of the outcome of their investigation.”
Shortly after the doc aired last week several people, including some key industry figures, demanded answers from the BBC around some of the circumstances of its making. The BBC initially defended the documentary, but shortly after apologised for failing to disclose that 14-year-old Abdullah Al-Yazouri, the film’s English-speaking narrator, was the son of Ayman Al-Yazouri, the deputy minister of agriculture in Gaza’s Hamas-run government.
The BBC has unequivocally blamed the producer for the error, saying that Hoyo Films failed to inform executives about Al-Yazouri’s father.
Former BBC director of television Danny Cohen called the situation a “shocking failure” by the BBC and that its commitment to impartiality on the Israel-Hamas war “lies in tatters.”
Nandy also addressed the scandal surrounding Westwood, probably the BBC’s leading authority on hip hop music and culture during a two-decade stint at the broadcaster and the subject of claims of “bullying and misogynistic behaviour,” after a long-awaited review, also published yesterday, found the BBC lacked structured processes for handling the complaints during his employment. The BBC has apologised and admitted it “fell short and failed people.”
“The allegations against Tim Westwood are very serious,” Nandy said.
“It is essential that staff and the wider public can have confidence in the BBC as our national broadcaster. There have been far too many instances of appalling behaviour in the media industry and there has been a culture of silence around inappropriate behaviour for too long. This cannot continue.”
