Roger Mosey, the former head of BBC television news, may be right that “basic rookie errors” were made over the BBC’s film featuring relatives of Hamas officials, but I doubt it’s that simple (Culture secretary to hold urgent meeting with BBC chair over Gaza film, 28 February). As a former TV commissioner, I have been asked to conduct investigations into editorial misdemeanours. In every case it came down either to a member of the production team having not been straight with the producer, or the producer not being straight with the broadcaster.
No matter how much small print is added to the contracts between broadcasters and producers, nothing works in factual programming without trust. Factual programmes throw up myriads of unforeseen problems that must be resolved between the film-makers and the broadcaster. But having resolved them and made the appropriate editorial changes, including adding missing information, these programmes were then broadcast without further issue.
Unless there is some unresolvable issue with it, Gaza – How to Survive a War Zone must be put back on BBC iPlayer, with appropriate changes, as soon as possible so we can all see it and judge it for ourselves.
Peter Grimsdale
Former commissioner, BBC and Channel 4
• Last summer I was Save the Children’s interim response team leader in Gaza. I watched Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone when it was still on BBC iPlayer. In many respects, it accurately portrayed what it was like to be in Gaza during active hostilities. In 20 years of humanitarian work, it was the hardest response to which I have been deployed.
The documentary centred on three children who were clearly affected by what they were experiencing, and who showed courage and resilience in the face of horror. But the film gave a misleading impression, as the situation depicted for two of them was more privileged than that of the great majority I met. It gave the impression that the lives children were facing in Gaza were better than they actually were.
The controversy around the film distracts attention from the plight of hundreds of thousands of children suffering harm in Gaza.
David Skinner
Sevenoaks, Kent
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