BBC director general Tim Davie and the corporation’s chair Dr Samir Shah are this week expected to 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.”
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.
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Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy in relation to the documentary, which was aired on BBC2 on February 17, but has now been withdrawn from the iPlayer service.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.
Lisa Nandy at a Jewish Labour-Jewish News hustings (Marc Morris Photography via Jewish News)
Last Friday, the minister also met with the BBC’s chair.
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. “
