BBC Director-General Tim Davie has admitted he is “not ruling out” a return of the controversial Gaza documentary to the broadcaster’s iPlayer system, following an investigation into potential “bias”.
Appearing in front of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee today, Davie and BBC Chair Samir Shah faced questions by MPs on the film, which sparked more than 500 complaints from viewers and various organisations.
The film, titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, sparked waves of criticism and claims of bias after it emerged one of the key people featured in the programme was the son of a Hamas leader.
Speaking to the committee, Davie admitted that there are “flaws” in the film, there is “nothing more important to the BBC” than “being trusted”.
BBC boss Tim Davie has admitted he is ‘not ruling out’ reinstating the documentary following its investigation
Parliament TV
When pressed by MP Rupa Huq on the controversial film and its “accuracy”, Davie admitted there is “a lot of frustration and disappointment” felt by BBC bosses about the situation.
Davie said: “Nothing is more important than that we’re trusted, and so you can imagine that I think there’s a lot of frustration and disappointment.
“It’s not about the BBC and people like myself, but we’re very sorry to the audience because we don’t want to be in a position where we we have flaws in the programme making.”
However, the Director-General made clear that he is “proud” of the company for producing such programmes, and covering “difficult events” internationally.
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The film was removed from BBC iPlayer after it was revealed that the young narrator of the film was the son of a Hamas minister
BBC
Davie told the committee: “Overall, I am proud of the way we’re covering some of these polarised, fiendishly difficult events where many of our journalists, as you know, are under enormous pressure – ferocious lobbying – and it’s been extremely difficult.
“But in this case, there are flaws.”
Defending his decision to remove the film from the BBC iPlayer, Davie made clear that he had “lost trust” in the film after receiving hundreds of complaints about it.
Davie stated: “And at the end of the day, as editor in chief, I have to be secure not only editorially where the film is at, but the making of that film. And at that point, quite quickly, I lost trust in that film.
BBC bosses Tim Davie and Samir Shah were grilled by MPs by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Parliament TV
“Therefore, I took the decision quite quickly to take it off iPlayer while we do this deep dive. That’s what’s happened.”
When questioned on whether the documentary could be reinstated on iPlayer following the investigation, Davie admitted: “I’m not really ruling anything out.
“I think we’ve done a good first initial bit of initial work that tells me more than enough that there are flaws, but I want to do a forensic analysis.
“We want to make sure we’ve done the forensic analysis of the process, the editorial, and do the work.”
