EPAA report about failures in its program-making is difficult for BBC. Two can be horrific in a single day – and this BBC boss woke up on Monday morning.
The day has been about publicly apologizing, announcing action plans and trying to turn on a corner – on Wallace misconduct story and on Failure on its gazelle – After deep damage in a few months.
But will it work?
Wallace still has questions about whether the BBC has created a culture where presenters lived from different rules (some recent culture review aims to achieve a grip) and also what was happening on its platforms, there was enough active monitoring of what was happening on its platforms.
I think the BBC has a good case to say that it got a catch in later years. Kate Philips, who is now the Chief Material Officer, warned Wallace about his behavior in 2019 and after that, no complaints were increased to the BBC as reported. If this is correct, the BBC may argue that the issue was resolved.
On the Gaza documentary about the children in Warzon, now with an investigation initiated by the regulator in the BBC misleading audience, this is no meaning of the end of the story.
But the review has given BBC a place to breathe on its face. The Culture Secretary, who recently asked why no one was taken out on the Gaza documentary, seems to have come back.
I think Director General Tim Davi and President Sameer Shah met Lisa Nandi last week to assure them. Her more consent voice must have inspired a corporate call of relief after the recent pointed attacks directed by the BBC.
Questions still remain on whether anyone will lose their job inside the BBC. We know that the BBC team failed to get a reply on the boy’s family link, the investigation keeps them partially responsible for the failures – and the BBC says it is taking “fair, clear and appropriate action” to ensure this accountability.
Inside the BBC, there is a question asked where failures have occurred. Will the head – or rather deputy heads – roll? It is a blasphemy whether there is a real accountability at the top when something goes wrong. We still do not know the results here.
But more widely, when it comes to Gaza, it has become difficult in the last few months.
When Davi gave evidence to MPs in March when he pulled Gaza: how to avoid a Warzone from Iplay, he told him that he “lost faith in that film” once the fact that the child storyteller was the son of a Hamas officer, became clear.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the ongoing war has inspired others to lose confidence in the BBC and what is happening in Gaza, its coverage, where the access by foreign journalists is stopped by Israel.
The corporation has been accused of antisemitism. The broadcast of a documentary without knowing that fact about Hamas’s link – and not informing its audience – opened it for those allegations.
So did the BBC failure properly deal with Glstonbury when Pank pair Bob Valn chanting “IDF” and made other aggressive comments.
There are people inside and outside the corporation who feel betrayed by BBC coverage. Some people say that it is biased against Israel and on October 7, the attacks and hostages have been forgotten. Some people accuse the BBC that the plight of Ghazan and Israel’s works in their coverage of war was ignored.
Getty imagesIt recently said another documentary about the struggle, Gaza: Doctors under attack, as it said that “the risk of broadcasting is that there is a risk of making a perception of bias that will not meet high standards that the public expects the BBC”.
Less than two weeks ago, at a pack screening at London’s Rivarous Studio, hundreds of people saw it on the big screen, as it was shown on Channel 4. I was there. The woman sitting next to me was in tears because the horrors were revealed on the screen. She was not the only one.
The BBC has said that earlier Gaza: Doctors under attack film delayed the light of investigation in other documents. It then dropped it, deciding that its presenter cannot run after the BBC Radio 4’S Stode program and Israel is called ‘an evil state’ an evil state that is killing crimes and caste cleaning and killing Palestinians on a large scale.
In basement films, filmmakers have pushed it back. On Monday, he said that “the film was never running on BBC News and we were given many and sometimes contradictory reasons for this, for us the only consistent subject is a crippling atmosphere of fear around Gaza”.
Whatever the true story was on why the BBC was not shown, it is claimed – that the BBC’s Gaza coverage is compromised with fear – it is equally harmful. The BBC denies this, but in some quarters, it is holding it.
In the screening room, Gary Linekar came on stage and said that the BBC is called “one of the most important films of our time”, which not to screen “should hang his head with shame”. He accused the BBC of bending for pressure – and the audience agreed without any consent.
The Reporting of Israel-Gaja War has never tested the BBC almost before. An inner source told me that neither side wants fair reporting, what they want is partisan reporting. However, from all sides, the BBC is on fire.
The BBC says that it is “perfectly committed to the Reporting Israel-Gaza conflict, committed to the highest standards of accurate and journalism”. It also states “We strongly reject this perception – flat from different aspects of this conflict – that we are supporters or opposed to any situation”.
The annual report was seen by HUW Edwards Crisis two years ago, it was strictly alleged last year, this year it is not one but three stories.
The most important task for a Director General is to secure charter renewal and the BBC has a strong story to tell and sell. But the difficulty for Tim Davi is that no matter how loudly he beat the drum for the BBC and its future, it is difficult to hear on the day of crisis.
