Just days after campaigners gathered outside the offices of Britain’s taxpayer-funded BBC, accusing it of giving a voice to terrorists, it has emerged that a second broadcaster featured the son of a Hamas official in its Gaza coverage.
Channel 4 broadcast footage of then-13-year-old Abdullah al-Yazouri—whose father, Dr. Ayman Alyazouri, is a deputy minister in the Hamas government—for seven months without disclosing this fact, according to The Daily Telegraph. In one extraordinary report, the broadcaster showed al-Yazouri as a street seller trying to “help support his family,” while accusing Israel of forcing him out of education.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism, which organised last week’s demonstration outside the BBC headquarters, said Channel 4 bosses had “failed the British public” by deviating from the “very simple and essential obligation” of conducting “due diligence to ensure that their reporting is accurate and impartial.”
A spokesman for the group told europeanconservative.com that if al-Yazouri was featured in Channel 4’s award-winning coverage of the war in Gaza, as per the Telegraph’s report, these awards should be “revoked” due to “irresponsible reporting.”
Channel 4 said in a statement that it is taking the matter “very seriously” and that “al-Yazouri did not feature in any of Channel 4 News’ award-winning coverage.” This publication has also reached out to the broadcaster for further comment.
The same Hamas official’s son also narrated a now-discredited BBC documentary on life in Gaza. The programme wrongly translated references to “the Jews”—changing them to “Israel” or “Israeli forces”—and omitted praise of “jihad.”
Unlike the BBC, Channel 4 is not funded by the state. However, it is a ‘public service broadcaster’ (PSB), meaning it is supposed to serve the public as opposed to commercial interests. Ofcom, Britain’s broadcasting regulator, describes PSB as having a “long and proud tradition” of delivering “impartial and trusted news.”
Despite this, the Campaign Against Antisemitism claims coverage of the Middle East from both Channel 4 and the BBC “underscore how so much of what is shown on our screens about life in Gaza is propagandistic. It is the responsibility of news organisations to expose that, not amplify it.”
