BBC criticised by 500 media figures for pulling Gaza documentary

Gary Lineker, Anita Rani, Riz Ahmed and Miriam Margolyes are among much than 500 media figures who person criticised the BBC's determination to propulsion a documentary astir children's lives successful Gaza.

The BBC has said it removed Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone from iPlayer portion it carried retired "further owed diligence" aft discovering its 13-year-old narrator was the lad of a Hamas official.

The unfastened letter, published by Artists for Palestine UK, criticised what the signatories said was a "racist" and "dehumanising" run targeting the documentary.

It called connected the BBC to "reject attempts to person the documentary permanently removed oregon subjected to undue disavowals".

The corp said it had not been informed of the teenager's household transportation successful beforehand by the film's accumulation company.

The BBC's committee is expected to sermon the movie connected Thursday.

The letter, sent to director-general Tim Davie, BBC committee seat Samir Shah, main contented serviceman Charlotte Moore, and CEO of BBC News Deborah Turness, said the movie offered an "all-too-rare position connected the lived experiences of Palestinian children".

It reads: "Beneath this governmental shot are children who are successful the astir dire circumstances of their young lives. This is what indispensable stay astatine the bosom of this discussion.

"As programme-makers, we are highly alarmed by the involution of partisan governmental actors connected this issue, and what this means for the aboriginal of broadcasting successful this country."

The letter's different signatories see directors Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, actors Khalid Abdalla and Ruth Negga, instrumentalist Nitin Sawhney and Sara Agha, who presented the BBC documentary bid The Holy Land And Us: Our Untold Stories.

A BBC spokesperson said: "Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone features important stories we deliberation should beryllium told - those of the experiences of children successful Gaza.

"There person been continuing questions raised astir the programme and successful the airy of these, we are conducting further owed diligence with the accumulation company. The programme volition not beryllium disposable connected iPlayer portion this is taking place."