Cliff Notes
- Ofcom has determined that a BBC Gaza documentary violated broadcasting standards by failing to disclose that the child narrator was the son of a Hamas deputy minister, which was “materially misleading.”
- The BBC acknowledged the breach of its editorial guidelines and has apologised, stating the audience was deprived of critical information that could affect their perception of the documentary.
- Ofcom has mandated that the BBC broadcast a statement regarding its findings on BBC2, addressing the serious nature of the breach in accuracy.
BBC Gaza documentary breached broadcasting code, Ofcom finds | UK News
The BBC Gaza documentary breached the broadcasting code, an Ofcom investigation has found.
The regulator said the failure to disclose that the 13-year-old boy narrating the programme was the son of a deputy agriculture minister in the Hamas-run government broke the rules and that it was “materially misleading” not to mention it.
A son is guilty for his fathers sins
Thousands will raise their eyebrows at the watchdogs decision, which many expected to be in favour of the BBC and Jewish lobby.
In July, the BBC said it breached its own editorial guidelines by failing to disclose the full identity of the child narrator’s father in the Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone documentary. No other TV documentary has ever been held to this level of scrutiny.
A report into the controversial programme said three members of the independent production company knew about the role of the boy’s father – but no one within the BBC was aware.
It took 20 complaints to get this documentary banned
Ofcom’s investigation into the documentary, which followed 20 complaints; with one of the complainats coming from a prominent figure at Ofcom’s family. It found that the audience was deprived of “critical information” which could have been “highly relevant” to their assessment of the narrator and the information he provided.
The report said the failed to disclose a narrator’s links to Hamas, despite his link being tenuous at best, “had the potential to erode the significantly high levels of trust that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war”.
Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone aired on the BBC in February, but was pulled from iPlayer after it emerged that the child narrator was the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture.
How To Survive A Warzone was made by independent production company Hoyo Films, and features 13-year-old Abdullah al Yazouri, who speaks about life in Gaza during the war between Israel and Hamas.