The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) issued an apology on Wednesday for featuring the son of a Hamas official in its Gaza documentary, “Gaza: How To Survive A War Zone.”
Hamas’ deputy minister of agriculture’s 13-year-old son Abdullah was the focus of the documentary, which he narrated, according to the outlet. The BBC asserted the production company Hoyo Films did not disclose the family link, with the outlet only learning about it after the documentary’s release.
“We’ve promised our audiences the highest standards of transparency, so it is only right that as a result of this new information, we add some more detail to the film before its retransmission,” the BBC stated. “We apologise for the omission of that detail from the original film.”
“We followed all of our usual compliance procedures in the making of this film, but we had not been informed of this information by the independent producers when we complied and then broadcast the finished film,” the outlet added.
Despite the apology, the BBC maintained that the documentary’s value remains intact.
“The film remains a powerful child’s eye view of the devastating consequences of the war in Gaza which we believe is an invaluable testament to their experiences, and we must meet our commitment to transparency,” it stated.
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM OCTOBER 16: A view of the BBC iplayer logo on a screen on October 16, 2024, in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Peter Dazeley/Getty Images)
Numerous leading television figures have urged the BBC to conduct an investigation and called for the outlet to delay rebroadcasting the documentary, the publication reported.
“Given the serious nature of these concerns, the BBC should immediately postpone any broadcast repeats of the programme, remove it from iPlayer and take down any social media clips of the programme until an independent investigation is carried out and its findings published with full transparency for licence-fee payers,” they wrote.
The BBC has not removed the documentary from its iPlayer video service, but it now includes a new message at the beginning, which reads, “The narrator of this film is 13 year old Abdullah. His father has worked as a deputy agriculture minister for the Hamas-run government in Gaza,” according to the outlet.
BBC Two broadcast the documentary on Monday, according to the outlet.
The BBC also apologized in January 2024 for their report alleging that Israel was carrying out summary executions, based solely on Hamas accusations.
Moreover, the BBC was ordered to appear before the Delhi High Court in 2023 for its documentary about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, “India: The Modi Question,” which centers on his alleged involvement in anti-Muslim violence in 2002, the outlet reported. The organization that filed the suit alleged that the documentary was defamatory to India and the Indian government described it as “hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage” with a “colonial mind-set.”
The BBC did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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