4 hours ago
2
The BBC has announced the departure of its creative chief after five years in charge.
Charlotte Moore, the corporation’s chief content officer since 2020, is to leave later this year to take up a new job at Sony.
The news was announced as the corporation’s board met to discuss the growing controversy over a documentary about Gaza that featured the son of a Hamas official.
There was no suggestion from Moore or the BBC that her departure was connected to the row.
Moore said: “It’s been a tough decision to leave a job I love and an institution I believe in. But I’ve decided the time is right for a new challenge and a new adventure and to follow my heart to return to making shows.”
She said it had been an honour to “lead the BBC creatively as chief content officer at a time of unprecedented change” and she was “very proud of what we’ve achieved during my time at the helm”.
She added: “There’s nowhere quite like [the BBC] that backs risk-taking, innovation and homegrown creativity with such commitment, and I’ve been lucky enough to work with some of the very best programme-makers in the business.”
She will become chief executive of Left Bank Pictures, owned by Sony, which made the Netflix royal drama The Crown and the Starz Scottish historical show Outlander.
Tim Davie, the BBC’s director general, said Moore was “a creative powerhouse and real visionary who has made a huge impact during her time at the BBC”.
He said she had “a long track record of taking risks and supporting creatives both on and off screen” and had “taken bold decisions to deliver remarkable growth and set us up for further success in a digital age, on both the national and global stage”.
The BBC board was due to discuss the Gaza documentary row at a regular meeting on Thursday.
Last week a letter was sent to Moore, Davie, and Deborah Turness, the CEO of BBC News, asking challenging questions about the documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone.
The documentary was pulled from BBC iPlayer on Friday after it was revealed that Abdullah al-Yazouri, the film’s 13-year-old narrator, was the son of the deputy minister of agriculture in the Hamas government.
The BBC said it had not been aware of the child’s family connections. In a statement, it said: “We followed all of our usual compliance procedures in the making of this film, but we had not been informed of this information by the independent producers when we complied and then broadcast the finished film.”
after newsletter promotion
The documentary was produced by an independent company, Hoyo Films. Its two UK-based directors, Jamie Roberts and Yousef Hammash, gave directions to two Palestinian camera operators based in Gaza over nine months of filming.
Neither Hoyo Films nor the directors of the documentary have made any comment about the Hamas connections of the child narrator.
The BBC initially added a clarification to the film, but last Friday the corporation removed it from its platforms, saying: “There have been continuing questions raised about the programme and in the light of these, we are conducting further due diligence with the production company.”
The letter to Moore, Davie and Turness was signed by Danny Cohen, a former BBC One controller, and more than 40 others. It asked if the BBC knew about the child’s father, what diligence checks were undertaken, whether Abdullah or his family were paid, and whether Hamas permitted or authorised the filming.
On Wednesday a separate letter signed by 500 film, TV and other media professionals called on the BBC to reinstate the documentary, saying it was an “essential piece of journalism, offering an all-too-rare perspective on the lived experiences of Palestinians”.
Among the signatories were Gary Lineker, Mike Leigh, Juliet Stevenson and Ken Loach.
