LONDON, July 14: BBC has removed a documentary about the Gaza war from its streaming service after it revealed the 13-year-old narrator, Abdullah, is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who works as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture.
The independent production company, Hoyo Films, was found to have not shared the background information about the narrator’s father with the BBC. The review found no other breaches of editorial guidelines, including impartiality, and no evidence of “outside interests” impacting the programme.
The BBC’s Director-General Tim Davie has acknowledged the BBC received hundreds of complaints alleging bias against Israel and the programme’s removal from its streaming service. The BBC has been under scrutiny for its coverage of the 21-month Israel-Hamas war, which began after the militant group attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
The 21-month Israel-Hamas war has killed over 58,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. (AP)
