BBC director general Tim Davie and chairman Samir Shah have been answering questions at the Culture, Media, and Sport Committee this morning. A recent documentary came up…
Shah was asked if there were unanswered or incorrectly answered questions by the production company in the production of ‘Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone’:
“This is a really really bad moment what’s what been revealed goes to the heart is a dagger to the heart of the BBC’s claim to be impartial and to be trustworthy which is why I and the board are determined to answer the questions you’ve just asked because that’s what we’re trying to do here – who did know what.”
Tim Davie went on to clarify that there were unanswered questions from the BBC to the production company Hoyo Films about the people involved in the programme – begging the question as to why it went out in the first place. Davie insists that a deep dive will work out how to prevent this happening again…
There is an internal investigation currently underway while Ofcom has threatened action if it doesn’t proceed speedily. A lot riding on this one…
Broadcast regulator Ofcom has taken a break from pursuing GB News and has written this afternoon to BBC chairman Samir Shah over the notorious Gaza documentary. The BBC’s fumbling response to the documentary’s Hamas links ended up with its permanent removal and an acknowledgement that a Hamas official’s family was paid a sum for the piece…
Ofcom says that while it usually only accepts complaints that have “first been considered by the BBC” in “exceptional circumstances, Ofcom may intervene to handle and resolve a complaint which has not been resolved by the BBC.” The regulator says it has “ongoing concerns” about the “serious failings” in the programme’s production. You don’t say…
While it says it has decided to let the BBC conduct its own investigations with no current action it says it demands regular updates from the BBC and reserves “the right to use our powers to step in should we feel it necessary to do so, given that the BBC Board has decided these to be internal investigations.” Breathing down the BBC’s neck there…
Read Ofcom’s full letter below:
Continue reading “Ofcom Threatens to Intervene Against BBC Over Hamas-Linked Documentary”
Investigative reporter David Collier revealed the star of the BBC’s documentary ‘Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone’ is the son of the Hamas Deputy Minister of Agriculture on 18 February. The BBC has gone through quite a journey since then…
Curiously Marianna Spring and the BBC Verify team have been focussing on other issues in their coverage (‘Are planes crashing more often?‘) and ignoring the documentary scandal entirely. Guido Verify has been deployed to decided to provide fact-checking services…
The BBC’s position took some time to change even after solid evidence was presented by Collier and others:
The BBC received a letter from nearly 50 Jewish journalists raising questions about the documentary on 19 February and did not take it down, even temporarily, for three days. The programme broadcast by the BBC altered translations of the Arabic word for “Jew” to “Israeli.” Something the large BBC Middle East editorial team may have been able to spot…
Guido Verify will also examine two claims made by Gary Lineker and 500 media figures who wrote to the BBC criticising its 21 February decision to withdraw the documentary:
An analysis of Gary Lineker’s X account since the 27 February revelations shows the BBC star has not acknowledged them or backed down. Actor and fellow signatory Khalid Abdalla has stuck to his guns. The Met Police Counter Terrorism Command say they are “currently assessing whether any police action is required in relation to this matter.” Guido Verify recommends that the BBC approaches this team for due diligence checks prior to putting out any more Hamas-linked documentaries…
The BBC has released a statement on its documentary ‘Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone’ this evening. Summarised:
The programme was brought up by hacks at the Starmer-Trump press conference. Starmer kept tight-lipped and said Lisa Nandy was pursuing it. A complete blow-up…
Read the full statement below:
Continue reading “BBC: Hamas Official’s Family Was Paid for Gaza Documentary”
Gary Lineker has mounted a spirited defence of the now-pulled BBC documentary ‘Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone’ in a letter to BBC boss Tim Davie. Cometh the hour…
The departing football presenter is claiming along with Miriam Margolyes, Countryfile presenter Anira Rani and smattering of other BBC staff that it was fine to feature the minister of agriculture’s son prominently because his role in the Hamas government is “a civil service role concerned with food production” and “conflating such governance roles in Gaza with terrorism is both factually incorrect and dehumanising.” They also say the documentary is “an essential piece of journalism, offering an all too rare perspective on the lived experiences of Palestinians”…
Lineker et al argue the fierce opposition to the programme is based on a ‘racist insinuation’:
“This broad-brush rhetoric assumes that Palestinians holding administrative roles are inherently complicit in violence – a racist trope that denies individuals their humanity and right to share their lived experiences. As industry professionals who craft stories for the British public, including for the BBC, we condemn the weaponisation of a child’s identity and the racist insinuation that Palestinian narratives must be scrutinised through a lens of suspicion. We urge you to reject these tactics, protect vulnerable voices, and reaffirm your commitment to stories that hold power to account. Our screens and our society depend on it. “
Davie is currently sitting on another letter from Kemi Badenoch calling for an independent inquiry into not only the documentary but the entirety of the BBC’s coverage of the Middle East. Busy inbox…
Pressure on the authorities for the handling of information after the Southport attack isn’t dying down. The UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, Jonathan Hall KC, has now called the details released after the killings “inadequate.” Speaking to BBC Panorama, Hall said:
“People got the sense that something was being withheld or fudged in some way, and that led the social media types who wanted to spread disinformation to spread disinformation. The public could have been told immediately that there had been an attack by a 17-year-old male who was black, British, born in Wales and had lived in the UK all his life. That he comes from a Rwandan background and, as far as the police were aware, from a Christian background. That it was not possible to say whether he had an ideology or was a terrorist. But the police were looking at, at pace, all the material they found.”
Despite widespread calls for transparency, the police released next to nothing about Southport stabber Axel Rudakubana’s background, though one thing was made clear early on—authorities insisted it was not terror-related. Chief Constable Serena Kennedy told BBC Panorama:
“We were clear that there was no evidence, information or intelligence to suggest that this was terrorist-related. “We were really clear that we would keep that under continual review, which we’ve done from day one. But our colleagues in counter-terrorism policing, working with ourselves, were satisfied that this was not a terrorist related incident, and that’s remained the case throughout.”
Fast forward to October, and Rudakubana was charged with a terror offence and producing ricin. Hall argues the police should have simply stated that, at the time, they couldn’t determine whether he was a terrorist or not. Meanwhile, Starmer last month admitted he knew details about the Southport attacker as they emerged but stayed silent to avoid contempt of court – despite his long track record of calling out “acts of terrorism” before any charges and trials in the past. This won’t help continuing accusations of a ‘cover up’…
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”