Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, will hold an “urgent” meeting with the chair of the BBC over the broadcaster’s screening of a documentary on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The meeting was prompted by an internal review of Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone, which was made by independent production company Hoyo Films.
The review revealed that the documentary’s child narrator is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture.
The BBC stated that Hoyo Films had informed it that the boy’s mother had been paid "a limited sum of money for the narration".
Ms Nandy, who is set to meet with Dr Samir Shah on Friday, said that the BBC had “acknowledged serious failings”, both by itself and by Hoyo Films, in its handling of the programme.
“The public rightly holds the BBC to the highest standards of reporting and governance which is why I will be having an urgent meeting with the BBC chair later today.
“I want assurances that no stone will be left unturned by the fact-finding review now commissioned by the BBC’s director-general.”
The review must be rigorous and “get to the bottom of exactly what has happened in this case”, she said.
“It is critical for trust in the BBC that this review happens quickly, and that appropriate action is taken on its findings.”
A BBC spokesperson said it had “identified serious flaws in the making of this programme”.
They added: “Some of these were made by the production company and some by the BBC; all of them are unacceptable.”
BBC News took full responsibility, the spokesperson said.
“We apologise for this.
“Nothing is more important than the trust that our audiences have in our journalism. This incident has damaged that trust.
“While the intent of the documentary was aligned with our purpose – to tell the story of what is happening around the world, even in the most difficult and dangerous places – the processes and execution of this programme fell short of our expectations.”
Although the documentary was made by an independent production company, the BBC had ultimate editorial responsibility, the spokesperson said.
The production company was asked multiple times, in writing, by the BBC about “any potential connections” the narrator, and his family, had with Hamas, they said.
“Since transmission, they have acknowledged that they knew that the boy’s father was a deputy agriculture minister in the Hamas government.”
The spokesperson said that Hoyo Films had acknowledged “they never told the BBC this fact”.
After the discovery about Abdullah Al-Yazouri, who speaks about life in the territory amid the war between Israel and Hamas, the BBC added a disclaimer to the programme, and later removed it from its iPlayer, saying it had no plans to broadcast the programme again.
On Tuesday, protesters gathered outside Broadcasting House in London claiming the BBC had aired Hamas propaganda.
The BBC also faced criticism in pulling the documentary, with Gary Lineker, Anita Rani, Riz Ahmed and Miriam Margolyes among more than 500 media figures who had condemned the action.
In an open letter addressed to the BBC’s director-general Tim Davie, chair Dr Shah and now-former chief content officer Charlotte Moore, hundreds of TV and film professionals and journalists called the decision to remove the documentary “politically motivated censorship”.
