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BBC Chair Says ‘People Weren’t Doing Their Job’ Assuring Impartiality Standards Were Met When Questioned About Pulled ‘Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone’ Doc
'Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone' was raised in a parliamentary session with BBC boss Tim Davie and chair Samir Shah
The documentary was pulled from the BBC streaming service iPlayer two weeks ago after concerns were raised following the revelation that its 13-year-old narrator was the son of a deputy agricultural minister in Gaza’s Hamas-run government. Davie said that it was a “very difficult decision” to remove the documentary, adding that these were “stories we want to tell.” He also pushed back on the idea that the BBC bowed to “lobbies from either side,” and said that it simply came to whether “people can trust this program” and not whether it was a “valid area of journalistic endeavour.” Signed by more than 1000 names from the media industries — including Ken Loach, Mike Leigh, Gary Lineker and Riz Ahmed — it described the film “an essential piece of journalism, offering an all-too-rare perspective on the lived experiences of Palestinian children living in unimaginable circumstances.” The letter, addressed to BBC chair Samir Shah, director general Tim Davie and chief content officer Charlotte Moore, added that it was “appalled that the BBC has chosen to give credence to a politicized campaign that sought to discredit a documentary about children’s experiences of unspeakable Israeli military violence.”
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