has joined for a inquiry after the broadcasters aired Gaza: How To Survive A War Zone, last month. The hour-long documentary, which has now been removed from its streaming service, was centred on a 13-year-old boy who is the son of ’s deputy minister of agriculture.
Alongside the iconic rocker, his wife, , was among the 200 entertainment figures who signed an open letter for an investigation into alleged anti- bias in the . Other signees included the former controller Danny Cohen, JK Rowling’s agent Neil Blair, agent Anita Land and ex-Got Talent commissioner Claudia Rosencrantz. When he appeared before MPs last week, Tim Davie, the ‘s director-general, admitted there were “serious flaws” in the film Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone.
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Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne made calls for a BBC inquiry (Image: Getty)
Following the wave of backlash, the later confirmed that payments were made to the family of its narrator Abdullah al-Yazouri, the 14-year-old son of Dr Ayman Alyazouri, Hamas’s deputy minister for agriculture.
The broadcasters said in a statement: “There have been continuing questions raised about the programme, and in light of these, we are conducting further due diligence with the production company.”
The added that while these were “important stories we think should be told”, the programme would not be available to stream during the investigation.
The open letter, signed by the Osbourne couple, read: “It is time for the to acknowledge that it has a systemic problem of bias against of which this is the tip of the iceberg.”
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Gaza: How To Survive A War Zone was removed from BBC iPlayer (Image: BBC)
It also criticised the for making a “mockery of the Reithian Principles” and suggested “the board and senior management should be considering their positions”.
“Given the serious nature of these concerns, the should immediately postpone any broadcast repeats of the programme, remove it from iPlayer and take down any social media clips of the programme until an independent investigation is carried out and its findings published with full transparency for licence-fee payers.”
Actresses Mayim Bialik, Debra Messing and star Tracy-Ann Oberman also called for an investigation.