Controversial BBC Gaza doc ‘watched by Beeb’s most senior news boss weeks before it was broadcast’
THE BBC’S most senior news boss reportedly watched its controversial Gaza documentary weeks before it was broadcast.
Deborah Turness, the chief executive of BBC News and Current Affairs, is said to have sat through a screening almost three weeks before the airing of Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone last month.
Terror police are now looking at whether makers of the documentary broke the law by paying the family of narrator Abdullah Al-Yazouri, the 14-year-old son of a Hamas official.
A Beeb source told The Telegraph that Ms Turness had assumed that the programme “was fully compliant with BBC guidelines when she watched it at a preview screening”.
Ms Turness, who earns around £410,000 a year, joined the Beeb in 2022, and launched BBC Verify, a fact-checking service, two years ago.
The BBC has apologised for “serious flaws” in the making of the film about children’s lives in Gaza but says it was assured by producers no money went to Hamas.
A spokesperson said it has no plans to broadcast it again in its current form or return it to iPlayer.
Peter Johnston, the BBC’s Director of Editorial Complaints and Reviews, will carry out an independent review into why the film was allowed to air in the first place.
The Sun previously revealed how the BBC spent £400,000 of licence payers’ cash making the programme.