BBC apologises for ‘serious flaws’ over Gaza documentary

The BBC has apologised and admitted “serious flaws” in the making of a documentary about children’s lives in Gaza.

The documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone, was pulled from iPlayer last week after it emerged its 13-year-old narrator was the son of a Hamas official.

In a new statement on Thursday, the BBC said both the production company and the BBC had made “unacceptable” flaws, adding: “BBC News takes full responsibility for these and the impact that these have had on the Corporation’s reputation.”

It said it has “no plans to broadcast the programme again in its current form or return it to iPlayer”.

The BBC removed the documentary after concerns were raised that it centred on a boy called Abdullah who is the son of Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture. Hamas is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK and others.

It also launched a review into the film, and the BBC’s Board met earlier on Thursday to discuss it.

In the statement, a spokesperson said the BBC had not been informed of the teenager’s family connection in advance by the film’s production company.

The spokesperson says: “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.”

The spokesperson said the incident had “damaged” the trust in the BBC’s journalism – and “the processes and execution of this programme fell short of our expectations”.

They added the director-general of the BBC had asked for complaints “to be expedited to the Editorial Complaints Unit, which is separate from BBC News”.

A separate statement from the BBC Board added: “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.”

Earlier this week, the BBC was criticised for pulling the programme by more than 500 media figures, including Gary Lineker, Anita Rani and Riz Ahmed.