BBC claims broadcasting documentary was ‘damaging’ to trust in it – not its shameful collaboration with genocidal regime of deleting it
The BBC has announced that it has ‘no plans’ to restore to its iPlayer platform the documentary on the struggle faced by Gaza’s children under Israel’s genocide that it deleted last week under pressure from the Israeli embassy and UK Israel lobby.
In a statement reminiscent of Orwell’s DoubleSpeak, the broadcaster even claimed that broadcasting the documentary in the first place had been damaging to its reputation for fairness and transparency, when in fact the decision to delete has been widely condemned, including by leading Jewish figures:
BBC News has conducted an initial review on the programme “Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone”. Today the BBC Board was updated on that work. It has identified serious flaws in the making of this programme. Some of these were made by the production company, and some by the BBC; all of them are unacceptable. BBC News takes full responsibility for these and the impact that these have had on the Corporation’s reputation. We apologise for this.
Nothing is more important than the trust that our audiences have in our journalism. This incident has damaged that trust. While the intent of the documentary was aligned with our purpose – to tell the story of what is happening around the world, even in the most difficult and dangerous places – the processes and execution of this programme fell short of our expectations. Although the programme was made by an independent production company, who were commissioned to deliver a fully compliant documentary, the BBC has ultimate editorial responsibility for this programme as broadcast.
One of the core questions is around the family connections of the young boy who is the narrator of the film. 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.
Given the BBC’s own failings, the Director-General has asked for complaints on this matter to be expedited to the Editorial Complaints Unit, which is separate from BBC News. Alongside this a full fact-finding review will be undertaken; the Director-General has asked Peter Johnston to lead this work.
Peter Johnston, the Director of Editorial Complaints and Reviews, is independent of BBC News and reports directly to the Director-General. He will consider all of the complaints and issues that have been raised. He will determine whether any editorial guidelines have been broken; rapidly address the complaints that have been made; and, enable the BBC to determine whether any disciplinary action is warranted in relation to shortcomings in the making of this programme. This will include issues around the use of language, translation and continuity that have also been raised with the BBC.
We have no plans to broadcast the programme again in its current form or return it to iPlayer and will make a further assessment once the work of Peter Johnston is complete.
In a statement, the BBC board said its mistakes in broadcasting the programme had been ‘significant and damaging’:
The BBC Board met today. The subject matter of the documentary was clearly a legitimate area to explore, but nothing is more important than trust and transparency in our journalism. While the Board appreciates that mistakes can be made, the mistakes here are significant and damaging to the BBC.
The Board has required the Executive to report back at the earliest opportunity on the outcomes of the work the Director-General has commissioned.
The BBC has long and rightly been condemned for its regurgitation of Israeli government propaganda while minimising or even attacking the few Palestinian voices it features. The fact that its documentary – flawed, but not in the way the BBC claims – on the real lives of Palestinian children in Gaza facing the genocide and war crimes of the occupying regime was ever broadcast was surprising enough, but for the BBC to collaborate so cravenly with the rogue state that has murdered, maimed and starved hundreds of thousands of civilians is still utterly shameful.
In view of this scandalous capitulation, Skwawkbox is embedding the documentary from the Vimeo player, where it was uploaded by the film’s makers, below:
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It is notable that nobody has challenged the veracity of the actual content of this excellent documentary
Not surprising – the documentary reports what it is like for individuals to live through
WHAT IS REPORTED NIGHT AFTER NIGHT ON OUR TVs .
The Israelis restrict reporters in Gaza and the West Bank and we
have to rely on written accounts. Members of the press are killed there in
proportions exceeding their presence in the areas.
What do folks think happens when areas are bombed to bits? We have seen it
recently in Ukraine and in just about every war torn area over the globe, notably
in Vietnam etc.
Way back in WW2 those of us who lived through it remember
\our experiences as well as being told of them by our parents and older members
of our families and from News-reels.It happened here in London – the blitz –
and in Coventry and Liverpool to name but a few places where there was loss of Civilian life.
We ourselves bombed German Cities with similar results.
Watching those civilians run away from the bombers reminded me of the reported experience
of an elderly relative who had to run to an air-raid shelter during an attempt to bomb him
when with his mother in broad daylight on the South Coast of England in the early years of WW2.
As for the lad who reported this – much is made of his father in the HAMAS ruled Government –
well who else is there to govern and who helped build them up as an organisation at the expense of other Palestinian Political Parties? Here’s who:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up-hamas-now-its-blown-up-in-our-faces
is an Article from the Times of Israel by TAL SCHNEIDER
on 8 October 2023.
What a wretched organisation. The fact we have to pay them a licence fee is a monthly slap in the face! I think a few payments are going to slide for now.
I am abroad and can receive the BBC illegally. Not that it matters as I stopped watching anything related to the news or politics a long time ago and just watch the very occasional drama. I certainly wouldn’t be paying the licence fee in the UK!
I grew up with the BBC and it is so sad to see it now, a shadow of its former self. Thinking back to some of the wonderful documentaries etc. Now just a blatant propaganda machine for the state/establishment. I suppose it always has been, but at least debate and discussion was allowed and the journalists were worth the name.
(As an aside, the expensive capitulation to the so called ‘whistleblowers’ following the appalling ‘Panorama’ programme was the last straw and when I resigned from the Labour Party. Little did I know what was to follow in the years since then!)
I don’t accept that broadcasting the documentary damaged the BBC’s reputation, except with the murderous bastards like Zippy, who are committing these atrocities. Restoring it, or never deleting it in the first place, would show that the BBC has some integrity and a backbone. Instead it further demonstrates who really rules this country. I’ll be cancelling my direct debit for the TV licence.
Thanks Skwawkbox! More for international journalism than than (it would appear) the entire management of the BBC.
I had to turn off The Today Programme the other day.
No less than 3 warmongers were invited on to try to justify the recently-announced increase in military spending. As if that were not bad enough, the questions were usually along the lines of “Will it be enough?”
Nobody was allowed on who opposes it.
Beware the Streisand effect! I wonder how many more people will watch the documentary now that it has been banned.