Ofcom chair Grade warns BBC over ‘flawed’ Gaza film ahead of MPs grilling

Ofcom’s chair Lord Grade of Yarmouth has written to the BBC to express concerns about the “nature and gravity of the failings” that have emerged around its recent Gaza documentary.

Grade warned Samir Shah, the BBC chairman, that the broadcasting regulator may intervene if it is not satisfied with the BBC’s internal investigation into the circumstances surrounding Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone.

Ofcom published its letter the day before Shah and Tim Davie, the BBC director-general, are to be grilled about the documentary as part of a culture media and sport select committee hearing on the work of the corporation.

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The duo will  be quizzed by MPs about claims of multiple failings in relation to a flawed Gaza documentary.

Davie and Shah will appear before the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee in Westminster on Tuesday March 4 th where they face questions on the “work of the BBC.”

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Jewish News understands that the duo are expected to be asked about concerns around due diligence, and allegations that money might have been paid to the family members of Hamas ministers during the making of the film Gaza: How To Survive A warzone.

“Of course we have concerns,” one member of the Committee told Jewish News in relation to the film, ahead of Tuesday’s session in parliament.

Grade said that Ofcom supported the board’s decision to handle matters internally “at this stage” but that the body “will continue to keep the situation under close review and will expect regular updates from the BBC regarding both timeframes and progress and reserve the right to use our powers to step in should we feel it necessary to do so.”

The two BBC chiefs have already held meetings with Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy in relation to the documentary, which was aired on BBC2 on February 17, but has now been withdrawn from the iPlayer service.

The scandal erupted after it was revealed that the documentary’s child narrator, Abdullah Al-Yazouri, is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has served as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture.

The BBC has admitted that an independent production company, Hoyo Films, paid the boy’s mother “a limited sum of money for the narration” via his sister’s bank account.

Nandy told MPs last week that she had sought assurances from Davie after meeting him, that no money was paid to Hamas during the making of the film.

Last Friday, the minister also met with the BBC’s chair.

Nandy  is understood to have had a robust conversation with Shah  in which she highlighted the unacceptable ­failings from both the production company and the BBC,

She said the BBC appears to have fallen well short of the standards expected by the public.

Nandy said in a statement”“The BBC has acknowledged serious failings by them and the production company Hoyo Films.

“The public rightly holds the BBC to the highest standards of reporting and governance which is why I will be having an urgent meeting with the BBC chair later today.

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