BBC boss not ruling out’ Gaza documentary’s return

The BBC director general has not ruled out once again airing the controversial documentary about Gaza which was pulled from iPlayer after it emerged it featured the son of a Hamas official.

- MILLIE COOKE

Addressing the House of Commons culture, media and sport committee yesterday, Tim Davie said the broadcaster would conduct a “forensic investigation” into the programme, admitting that “transparency was lacking” in the making of the film.

Mr Davie’s appearance in front of the committee follows the BBC’s apology last week for “serious flaws” in the making of the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone after it emerged that the child narrator is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture.

The BBC previously said it had “no plans to broadcast the programme again in its current form or return it to iPlayer” and that it would make a “further assessment” once the review is complete. Yesterday, Mr Davie told MPs on the committee that he is “not ruling anything out”.