UK Culture Secretary Meeting BBC Chair “Urgently” Over ‘Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone’ Controversy

deadline.com:

The BBC‘s Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone saga has ramped up further as the Culture Secretary gets set to meet the BBC Chair later today with only one item on the agenda.

Lisa Nandy, who has already weighed in on the controversy once, said she will have an “urgent meeting” with Samir Shah on Friday. “I want assurances that no stone will be left unturned by the fact-finding review now commissioned by the BBC’s Director General,” said Nandy. “This review must be comprehensive, rigorous and get to the bottom of exactly what has happened in this case.” The BBC Board met yesterday to discuss the saga and an unprecedented statement from the BBC straight after revealed that the doc’s production company was aware of the How to Survive a Warzone narrator’s Hamas connections and hid them from commissioners.

The BBC added that How to Survive a Warzone producer HOYO Films gave the narrator’s mother a small sum of money for the narration, having faced questions over whether the BBC had effectively paid Hamas officials to partake in the doc.

An in-depth review has been launched by Peter Johnston, who oversaw the BBC’s Russell Brand probe. The doc was produced and directed by Jamie Roberts, whose HOYO Films also put out its first statement last night, saying it would fully co-operate with the Johnston review.