UK Culture Secretary Meeting BBC Chair “Urgently” Over ‘Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone’ Controversy

The BBC‘s Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone saga has ramped up further as the Culture Secretary gets set to meet the BBC Chair later today with only one item on the agenda.

Lisa Nandy, who has already weighed in on the controversy once, said she will have an “urgent meeting” with Samir Shah on Friday.

“I want assurances that no stone will be left unturned by the fact-finding review now commissioned by the BBC’s Director General,” said Nandy. “This review must be comprehensive, rigorous and get to the bottom of exactly what has happened in this case.”

The BBC Board met yesterday to discuss the saga and an unprecedented statement from the BBC straight after revealed that the doc’s production company was aware of the How to Survive a Warzone narrator’s Hamas connections and hid them from commissioners. The BBC added that How to Survive a Warzone producer HOYO Films gave the narrator’s mother a small sum of money for the narration, having faced questions over whether the BBC had effectively paid Hamas officials to partake in the doc. An in-depth review has been launched by Peter Johnston, who oversaw the BBC’s Russell Brand probe.

The doc was produced and directed by Jamie Roberts, whose HOYO Films also put out its first statement last night, saying it would fully co-operate with the Johnston review.

Nandy said: “The BBC has acknowledged serious failings by them and the production company Hoyo Films. It is critical for trust in the BBC that this review happens quickly, and that appropriate action is taken on its findings.”

The issue first reared its head last week when an investigative journalist unearthed that one of the doc’s narrators was the son of a Hamas minister. A group of 45 Jewish TV industry figures including ex-BBC content chief Danny Cohen contacted the BBC and the doc was eventually removed from iPlayer, with the BBC saying HOYO Films failed to inform executives about the narrator’s father. In response, hundreds of people including BBC presenter Gary Lineker signed an open letter condemning the corporation’s “censorship on Palestine.”

The situation is spiralling out of control for the against-the-ropes Beeb and was one of the lead items on this morning’s Today program. Artists for Palestine UK, the group that co-ordinated the “censorship” letter, doubled down on its view earlier today.

“We are appalled that the BBC has chosen to give credence to a politicised campaign that sought to discredit a documentary about children’s experiences of unspeakable Israeli military violence, because one child’s father was deputy agriculture minister in Gaza,” said the statement. “This disgraceful decision comes despite nearly 900 media figures having warned the BBC of the dangers of such an approach.