The BBC has temporarily removed the documentary “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone” from its iPlayer service while it investigates its 13-year-old narrator’s apparent connection to a Hamas deputy minister.
“‘Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone’ features important stories we think should be told — those of the experiences of children in Gaza. There have been continuing questions raised about the programme and in the light of these, we are conducting further due diligence with the production company,” the British public service broadcaster said in Friday statement. “The programme will not be available on iPlayer while this is taking place.”
“Since the transmission of this documentary, the BBC has become aware that the father of the film’s narrator, a child called Abdullah, has worked as a deputy agriculture minister for the Hamas-run government in Gaza,” a separate statement further clarified.
The update comes after the BBC previously put a title card atop of the documentary to explain that teen narrator Abdullah Al-Yazouri is allegedly the son of a Hamas official.
“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. We apologise for the omission of that detail from the original film,” the BBC’s Wednesday statement said. “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.”
Still, they noted, “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.”
“Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone” initially aired on BBC Two on Monday. Independent, London-based production company Hoyo Films has not yet addressed the controversy.
