I recently started a new job. It poses absolutely minimal risk and involves zero contact with anyone vulnerable, yet I still had to go through a rigorous, stressful enhanced DBS check and jump through endless compliance hoops providing detailed information or what I did during my locum assignments and provide references for those periods just to be cleared to work as a temp/locum.
So I am absolutely baffled by the recent <a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=web&rct=j&url=www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/10/17/former-prisoner-who-defended-hamas-employed-by-bbc/&ved=2ahUKEwjOzJOIwsuXAxUHXEEAHYrdBcEQy_kOegYIAAgQEAE&opi=89978449&cd&psig=AOvVaw1DO8m0AbITq_okC2urZJhK&ust=1792686044330000" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Telegraph coverage concerning Hicham Yezza, the BBC's Principal Data Scientist for Responsible AI.
For anyone who missed the story, his exact role involves guiding how the BBC uses artificial intelligence and developing independent benchmarks to ensure AI assistants represent news fairly.
Yet, according to media reports:
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Criminal Record: In 2009, he served a prison sentence for immigration crime IE a deceptive immigration offence to evade deportation ( claimed his passport was stolen but it then found in his flat during a search under criminal investigation).
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Terror Probe: He was also arrested in 2008 in a high-profile terror probe over an Al-Qaeda training manual found on his university computer (he was cleared on the grounds that it was for a student's research). He has accounts on Telegram where he offers technical help for terrorism.
- Deportation Order: He appeal his deportation Order and was given citizenship.
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Impartiality Issues: Before joining the BBC, he was a vocal pro-Palestinian activist who repeatedly used social media to call Israel an "apartheid regime" and openly described Gaza rocket fire/Hamas terrorism as "resistance." He also edited Ceasefire magazine, which published highly polarised political content.
- Etc
The BBC's official line is that his past views don't affect his employment and he hasn't broken social media rules since joining.
But AIBU to think this is a massive double standard and a joke of a vetting process?
As a licence fee payer, it's terrifying that someone with a conviction for active deception and heavily publicised, highly polarised political biases is the architect behind "impartial" AI logic at our national broadcaster.
If everyday workers are scrutinised to the nth degree for basic jobs, how does a publicly funded institution let someone with this background handle the literal safeguards of news integrity?
Or am I being totally unreasonable and the BBC should be using the licence fee to provide employment to people like him regardless of the role and we just hope the BBC's output is impartial and in the best interest of Great Britain?
YABU or YANBU?