Mick Hartley

Jeremy Bowen makes the news again.

The BBC has apologised and compensated an Israeli family who survived the 7 October attack after a film crew entered their destroyed home without consent.

Days after the attack, a BBC crew led by senior correspondent Jeremy Bowen, arrived in Netiv HaAsara, a small village on the Gaza border where 17 residents were murdered. During the visit, the crew entered the home of the Horenstein family without their knowledge and filmed inside the property, including personal photographs of their children – at a time when many of the family’s friends and relatives still did not know whether they had survived.

An apology is unusual – but this was the BBC itself, not Bowen. After reporting that the attack on the Al-Ahli hospital was Israel’s responsibility – as per the Hamas press release – Bowen didn’t retract when this turned out to be untrue. He had “no regrets”, he said.