Protesters have accused the BBC of airing “raw Hamas propaganda” following a row over a documentary about Gaza. Demonstrators gathered outside Broadcasting House on Tuesday to criticise the BBC’s reporting of hostage handovers in recent weeks and called for an independent inquiry into the BBC’s coverage of Israel.
Last week the BBC issued an apology after it emerged a child narrator in a documentary about Gaza was the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture. The broadcaster decided to take down the documentary from BBC iPlayer while it carried out “further due diligence with the production company”.
Dozens of protesters gathered in central London on Tuesday evening, many with flags and banners as part of a demonstration organised by the Campaign Against Antisemitism. A minute's silence was held in memory of those killed on October 7 2023 and since in Hamas captivity.
Michael Marlowe, the father of Jake Marlowe, who was killed by Hamas during the October 7 attack, told the crowd: "For decades, the BBC stood as the bastion of honest and trustworthy reporting. "It was the world's first port of call for global and national news, respected for its integrity and neutrality. But that BBC is long gone.".
Meanwhile, Gideon Falter, the Chief Executive of the CAA, told the crowd that the BBC “cannot call terrorism by its name”. Researcher David Collier described the documentary as “raw Hamas propaganda” insisting that it was “full of distortion and lies”.
Mr Collier claimed it featured “children reading from their Hamas written scripts” and added that the BBC only took the documentary down because they were caught. Following the discovery of Abdullah Al-Yazouri, who speaks about what life is like in Gaza amid the war between Israel and Hamas, the BBC later added a disclaimer to the programme.
Further accusations have been made about Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone, such as claims that other children were pictured with the militant group Hamas. Meanwhile, The Sun reports that the BBC spent £400,000 of licence payers’ cash on the documentary.
A spokesperson for the CAA said the documentary is the "tip of the iceberg". They said: "We all came out this evening because it is time for transparency and accountability. "We need to know if licence fee funds went to Hamas, we need to know how a Hamas propaganda programme was broadcast, we need resignations and we finally need an independent inquiry into BBC bias against the Jewish state.
"The problem is clear to everyone now except, apparently, the BBC. That's when you know there's an institutional problem.". The Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch wrote to the BBC calling for a probe into the commissioning of the programme. Meanwhile on Wednesday, a letter from Friday Night Dinner and EastEnders actress Tracy-Ann Oberman, Strike producer Neil Blair, former BBC One controller Danny Cohen and producer Leo Pearlman called for the BBC to pull the documentary.
Mr Cohen said on Friday it is “a shocking failure by the BBC and a major crisis for its reputation”, and claimed that a featured girl and a boy – who has carried wounded civilians in the documentary – have links to Hamas. He also said: “The BBC’s senior leadership needs to wake up now and admit the corporation has a serious problem.”.
