Culture Secretary to meet with BBC bosses amid controversy over Gaza documentary

20 February 2025, 08:37 | Updated: 20 February 2025, 09:52

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has revealed she will be speaking to BBC bosses about a controversial Gaza documentary.

Speaking to LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, Ms Nandy said she wanted to ensure the corporation was not straying into anti-Semitism with its work.

She said she would be raising questions about how the BBC sourced the people featured in the documentary.

Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone was broadcast on Monday evening, depicting a "vivid and unflinching view of life" in Gaza, according to documentary makers.

The raw and often graphic documentary featured multiple accounts of the conflict, with the hour-long film showing the devastation of Gaza through the eyes of three young Palestinian children in the region.

Investigative journalist David Collier has claimed one of the child narrators featured in the documentary, 14-year-old Abdullah, is in fact the son of a Hamas government minister and grandson of one of Hamas' founders.

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Lisa Nandy will discuss BBC Gaza documentary with them

"This is a conversation I'll definitely be having with the BBC," Ms Nandy said.

"This specific documentary, 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."

Ms Nandy also said she had a meeting coming up with the BBC over its refusal to call Hamas terrorists.

"That's a discussion that we're about to have," she said. 'I've got a meeting coming up with the senior management of the BBC about this.

"In particular, we're also discussing the training and work that they're doing internally for their own staff around not just anti-Semitism, but the issues around Israel and Gaza and the way in which they treat those internally.

"For we want to make sure that there's an open and free culture where people can voice different opinions."

Dame Priti Patel on Hamas and the BBC

The minister revealed that she hosted a meeting for leaders across the arts sector not too long ago to "discuss the problems with anti-Semitism and the way in which the Israel-Gaza conflict has created challenges"

"One of the outcomes of that absolutely shocking conversation with some of the stories that I was told, really chilling me to the core, was that I've had a conversation with the Chair of the BBC and the Director General about the way in which they deal with issues around Israel, Gaza and to ensure that we don't stray into anti-Semitism when we deal with these things," she said.

Meanwhile, Dame Priti Patel has told LBC the BBC needs to "step up", especially on a day which has seen the bodies of four Israeli hostages taken during the October 7 attack returned.

"I think the BBC has been under a great deal of scrutiny over their reluctance to call Hamas a terrorist organisation, which is exactly what they are," she told Nick.

"And they need to reflect today of all days, when we're seeing the aftermath of October 7, with bodies being brought home, we're seeing the full brutality of Hamas, a terrorist organisation that again inflicted such brutality on October 7.

"The BBC needs to step up and obviously we will also look into this complaint that has been put forward."

Former Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer joins Henry Riley | Watch in full

It comes after former Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer told LBC's Henry Riley the BBC failed to acknowledge Hamas is a terror organisation.

She suggested the broadcaster didn't do their due diligence and have "questions to answer" over the documentary.

On Wednesday evening, she told Henry Riley: "The BBC have put out a documentary where it's alleged that the main person in the documentary is the son of a Hamas leader, and Hamas is a terrorist organisation, and they fail to acknowledge that.

"And as you said, they've said they didn't even know that, which suggests that they didn't do their due diligence.

"And I think the BBC have some questions to answer. How did that come to pass? What processes were followed?

"Are they comfortable with the fact that that documentary is still up on iPlayer, or do they think they ought to take it down pending an investigation into this question?".

Why is the BBC being accused of making a 'Hamas propaganda film'? Jon Sopel explains

When probed by Riley on whether the broadcaster had followed the editorial guidelines, she replied,

"If it is the case that the main person in the documentary was the son of a terrorist leader, the BBC have an obligation to say where their sources are from.

"And they didn't put that on the documentary at all. They didn't put it on even when it was pointed out to them.

"All their editorial guidelines were followed and this was just a documentary by children. And that was their initial justification.

"Now they have since changed that. But I do think that the BBC should be looking very carefully and closely into this matter."

Israel’s ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely said she has written to Director General of the BBC Tim Davie seeking answers over the ‘BBC’s choice of cameraman as well as the main protagonist of the documentary’.

She posted online: “Following the release of the BBC Two documentary on Gaza, I have sent an official letter to the Director General of the BBC, Tim Davie.

“I asked for clarification on the BBC’s choice of cameraman as well as the main protagonist of the documentary, given the BBC’s supposed commitment to impartiality.

“I await his response.”

The BBC has since defended the film, admitting the organisation had "full editorial control" despite stating it had no journalistic input given the ban on international reporters in the war zone.

It added the two documentary makers behind the film were both based in London.

'Serious questions'

Speaking to LBC on Wednesday, The News Agents host Jon Sopel said the cooperation has "serious questions to answer" as he called for a "health warning" to be slapped on the doc.

He said: “News organisations are not allowed into Gaza, so it has been a nightmare for journalists to get stories out there.

“So they found these kids, full editorial control, producers based in London, with local camera crews.

“But the claim is … the son of Hamas deputy minister of agriculture was one of the kids featured in the documentary and the question is, did the BBC know this and if not why didn’t they?

“So the BBC is facing allegations of just being a Hamas mouthpiece.“I spoke to someone very senior at BBC News and he said ‘It’s current affairs, mate.’

“There is BBC News and a whole different department that might as well be another planet called current affairs."

He added: "Of course, the producers were hamstrung by the fact they didn’t have access to Gaza, but apparently, the person who found out about the Hamas link was someone who just googled it.

"If the producers haven’t done that, they have some pretty serious questions to answer."