BBC documentary - children of Gaza

[SmokeRingsOfMyMind]

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/feb/17/gaza-how-to-survive-a-warzone-review-these-incredible-children-offer-a-sliver-of-hope

Did anyone see this last night? Heartbreaking and enraging in equal measure.

Surely one of the benefits of the internet is that it’s possible to find footage posted by people filming what’s going on? We don’t need to wait for a documentary to be made, get on X and search. No need to wait 6 months, just go see what’s happening today. Granted you need to check the source and get some corroboration but that’s hardly onerous. Takes less time to do than it used to take for an ad break.

Re Gaza, people from Gaza have been posting videos etc for the entirety of the war so I’m not sure why people are making out like this is the first we’ve seen of what’s been happening. It’s not just Israel that control journalists, Hamas does too so if you take the position that you can’t trust anything from Israel then you can’t trust anything from Gaza as that’s heavily controlled too. You’ve seen the hostage release footage? Ever questioned why there seem to be so many people filming? Those films don’t seem to end up on western MSM so who are they being shot for? Who are all the banners for? The drones filming the wide shots? Who’s putting in the dramatic music and suggesting what happens next week?

If neither side permits actual independent journalists in then we go to original source material. It doesn’t take an detective to find out if the account that posted something favours one side over the other neither does it take a tech genius to find material from opposing sources to get a balanced view.

Exactly Lolapusht Hamas controls their narrative in much the same way as the Israeli government does theirs.

It's not Gaza who do not allow independent journalists in.

The point is that Hamas doesn't need Independent journalists. They put out plenty of stuff on line without verification. Where do you think the Guardian, for example, gets their information? That's a rhetorical question.

Which interview? Would be interested to read it.

The issue is that it all gets accused of being propaganda because it's not reported by an independent journalist.

So they're quite happy to allow opposing viewpoints to their rule, that's news.

It would be if that's what anybody said 😂

Oh Lordy, it gets worse. Just saw something on X that Mr FAFO may have appeared in the documentary!!

I haven’t verified it yet but if it’s true that’s many, many “ooofts” to things.

Agree. Then we can make a subjective opinion of her objectivity.

Oh, your implication was that Gaza would welcome (truly) independent journalists if only Israel would allow it. I was a a little sceptical.

I must have misunderstood you, again.

Or just Google her name and 5years ago it was on Sky News

Exactly
So they need to let the journalists back in and stop killing them!

I would ideally prefer independent journalists to go into Gaza - rather than relying on videos on X or TikTok. As it is, I don’t use these sites.

I really can’t see what Hamas has to hide.

What does Israel have to hide? Why have they targeted journalists?

Maybe the biggest propaganda tool Palestinians have at present is actually what the IDF have done in Gaza?

No, maybe just stop looking for implications and ways to twist my words.
I was just stating a fact, not trying to make any implications.

Thanks for that. I did google it and, strangely, came up with more than one result.

I’m assuming you didn’t mean your post to sound snippy.

I’m not talking about made-for-audience videos, I mean videos of day to day life posted by “ordinary” people.

Can you genuinely not see what Hamas had to hide? They absolute control the narrative and the meaning coming out of Gaza. I’ve seen plenty of “journalists” who turn out to have connections to Hamas ie they’re wearing a Press vest rather than being a genuine journo. Do you realise that Hamas haven’t provided numbers of members who have been killed? They control all the information coming out, but they haven’t said how many of those killed are members of Hamas. That might be one thing they want to hide.

No not at all.
I would post a link that you could open like so many other MNs do but for some bizarre ( hopefully tech and not me reason ) I have never had the ability to do so.
Hence I posted the 5 years etc note as well.

So more the reason to have independent journalists into the area.

It’s not like it’s Hamas that’s preventing it? Were you not aware it is Israel who controls the Gazan borders?

And I want to see independent journalists giving a coherent picture of what has happened, interviewing ordinary people. You sound like you should support this. Why is Israel not?

Hamas absolutely does control what is said so any journalist permitted by Hamas it’s going to be producing Hamas approved material.

Are you forgetting Egypt also borders Gaza? Or are you just going to go with the ‘ah but Israel controls Egypt…”?

Ordinary people are telling their stories on SM and if much rather view what they have to say than listen to MSM filtered offerings.

i don’t actually speak for Israel so I have no idea what they want.

I've just watched this clip and I cannot figure out what on earth this has to do with anything she said about the BBC documentary.

@Lolapusht
The Gazan border with Egypt is called the Philadelphi corridor and remains under the control of Israel.

I am not so sure as you are that Hamas would be able to control the message of an experienced war journalist- and when this has been a concern, I have seen journalists state what they have and have not been allowed to do. I would like to see what an experienced war journalist makes of the situation.

Again, I would say that having journalists is better than relying on TikTok or X. Do you get rely on them for news and reasoned opinion?

I can perfectly well surmise why Israel does not want to let journalists in. I can understand why you - as (apologies if wrong) a pro-Israeli poster may not want to, as the only reasons can be it won’t be in Israeli’s favour for the world to see what they have done. Hence their repeated targeting and murder of journalists.

Me too. It seemed to be about - I assume - Tory complaints of bias against them by Channel 4.

How is it relevant to Byrne castigating the BBC over this documentary?

I thought that part of Byrne’s criticism that children should not be narrating about matters outside their own experience was spot on and a very telling aspect of the doc.

I also followed up the story about the dodgy translation in the documentary: ‘Israelis’ for ‘Jews’. I can’t know how far that goes, but on its face it’s seriously, seriously bad. Fucking shocking actually.

It’s very simple
Byrne has discredited herself as not impartial
She therefore cannot be trusted to speak about anything re impartiality

• She has no credibility to speak on this subject.

it’s a terrible example to use.

@Rummly
Mistranslation is a not a good look for the documentary- but the fact that there is a religious context to the war on both sides should not be a surprise. Have there been other examples of mistranslation that the Telegraph picked up on?