![](https://static.standard.co.uk/2025/02/19/19/19163850-ff85457e-0551-49ba-a8db-236f279de6a7.jpg?width=1200&auto=webp)
The Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy says she will be “discussing” a Gaza documentary with the BBC after it emerged the film’s narrator was the son of a Hamas deputy minister.
Gaza: How To Survive A War Zone, which aired on Monday on BBC Two, is narrated by 13-year-old Abdullah Al-Yazouri, who speaks about what life is like in the territory amid the war between Israel and Hamas.
It later emerged that he is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture.
The BBC apologised “for the omission of that detail from the original film”, and has edited the programme.
![](https://static.standard.co.uk/2025/02/20/11/a2d47ed920539f3da455c33b5a06559fY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzQwMTMzODQx-2.79108331.jpg)
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 and provide information about due diligence and duty of care.
When asked about the controversy, Ms Nandy told LBC: “I watched it last night.
“It’s something that I will be discussing with them, particularly around the way in which they sourced the people who were featured in the programme.
“These things are difficult and I do want to acknowledge that for the BBC, they take more care than most broadcasters in terms of the way that they try to portray these things.
“They’ve been attacked for being too pro-Gaza. They’ve been attacked for being anti-Gaza.
“But it is absolutely essential that we get this right.”
She added that she is “about to have” a discussion with the BBC about its reporting guidelines, following a consultation which ended last year.
“We’re also discussing the training and work that they’re doing internally for their own staff around not just antisemitism, but the issues around Israel and Gaza and the way in which they treat those internally for staff,” she said.
“We want to make sure that there’s an open and free culture where people can voice different opinions.”
The BBC said the new text attached to the film reads: “The narrator of this film is 13-year-old Abdullah. His father has worked as a deputy agriculture minister for the Hamas-run government in Gaza. The production team had full editorial control of filming with Abdullah.”
The corporation also said that it followed its “usual compliance procedures in the making of this film, but we had not been informed of this information by the independent producers when we compiled and then broadcast the finished film”.
Production company Hoyo Films has also made the BBC war documentary Ukraine: Enemy In The Woods.
Ms Nandy also told LBC that she had attended a meeting with the broadcasting sector a few weeks ago in which she heard about concerns raised by staff.
She said that “there is a fear that if you speak out, if you raise concerns about editorial decisions, that that will not be received well internally, and that can’t stand”, not just at the BBC.
“So I’m asking all of the public service broadcasters to work with us to change that,” Ms Nandy added.
![](https://static.standard.co.uk/2025/02/20/11/a9500b517c9f19ef2e112656704297e3Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzQwMTMzOTAw-2.78066856.jpg)
Her comments come in the wake of the BBC apologising after a review found a number of people “felt unable to raise” concerns about Russell Brand when he worked for the corporation and believed he “would always get his way and therefore they stayed silent”.
The review looked at Brand’s behaviour when he worked on BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio 2 between 2006 and 2008 and reported allegations that he was aggressive to staff and exposed himself.
The actor and comedian, 49, has previously denied separate accusations of rape, assault and emotional abuse.
The BBC has updated its anti-bullying and harassment policy and complaints procedure following Brand’s departure in 2008.
An external review into an alleged relationship between Phillip Schofield and a runner when he hosted This Morning in 2019, found that junior staff “remain convinced that to speak out will have a detrimental impact on their careers”, despite senior management promoting an open culture.