EXCLUSIVE: When the BBC screened Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone in February, there were hopes that the film would win awards. Fast forward six months, and the BBC will next week publish a delayed investigation into how the documentary descended into disaster.
Peter Johnston, the BBC’s director of editorial complaints and reviews, has examined what led to How to Survive a Warzone being narrated by the child of a Hamas minister, without this crucial fact being declared to audiences. The film, which was an unsparing portrayal of the chaos in Gaza from the perspective of three young people, was later removed from iPlayer.
Sources familiar with the review said Johnston had been forensic, with the expectation being that his findings will be chastening for the BBC, even though the corporation has been accused of marking its own homework. He will ultimately determine whether editorial rules were broken and lay the groundwork for disciplinary action.
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How to Survive a Warzone was produced by Hoyo Films, an independent production company run by Emmy and BAFTA-winning filmmaker Jamie Roberts. Overseeing the film for the BBC were Joanna Carr, head of current affairs, and commissioning editors Gian Quaglieni and Sarah Waldron.
Two sources told Deadline that some, if not all, of the individuals embroiled in the review have lawyered up as Johnston readies his findings. Johnston, a close ally of director-general Tim Davie, has gone through the process of Maxwellisation, a practice that gives individuals the opportunity to respond to criticisms made in an official report.
Deadline hears that the “quasi-legal” process has not been straightforward, with competing narratives needing to be considered. The BBC initially blamed Hoyo for failing to declare English-speaking narrator Abdullah Al-Yazouri’s Hamas links, but later acknowledged that it should have done more to establish this fact. More detail is also expected on payments made during production and whether any money fell into the hands of Hamas.
“Everyone feels like they could be the fall guy,” a source said of the febrile mood. Two people said those affected do not wish to be named in the final report. It is not yet clear if Johnston will honor this wish. His last review, which examined misconduct allegations against Russell Brand, only referenced job titles.
A BBC source said: “It’s obviously difficult for all involved. Peter is trying to run a proper process. It’s really important we establish the facts and the process is fair to those involved.”
Davie told BBC staff on June 11 that the How to Survive a Warzone review was “days” away, but these days ultimately turned into more than a month. Johnston will now publish in the same week as an investigation into ex-MasterChef host Gregg Wallace and the BBC’s annual report.
The BBC has faced huge pressure from Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy to finalize and publish the report, but the corporation has been led by the process rather than politicians. Nandy has openly questioned why nobody has been fired over the debacle, with one source saying that she is “looking for a scalp.”
Johnston’s findings will also be closely scrutinized beyond Westminster. A group of 45 Jewish television executives, including former BBC content chief Danny Cohen and J.K. Rowling’s agent Neil Blair, wrote to the BBC with a plethora of questions about the failings on How to Survive a Warzone. The BBC has also come under pressure from Palestinian sympathizers, including Gary Lineker, Riz Ahmed, and Ken Loach, who have described the decision to remove the film from iPlayer as “censorship.”
The BBC has, in some ways, already pre-empted Johnston’s conclusions. BBC chair Samir Shah said the incident was a “dagger to the heart” of the corporation’s impartiality and trustworthiness. “I have a worry that it wasn’t so much the processes that were at fault but that people weren’t doing their job,” Shah added. The coming days should reveal if Shah’s concerns were well founded.