Ofcom Shares ‘Continuous Concurrence’ on the controversial Gaza’s show of the BBC and warns that it can …

March 3, 2025, 20:06 | Updated: March 3, 2025, 21:01

Ofcom has said that it will let the BBC carry out its own research on its Gaza documentary, but “the right to use our powers to intervene if necessary.”

Ofcom has intervened in the controversy surrounding the BBC documentary Gaza: How to survive a war zone In an open letter to the station.

The BBC said that while the documentary presented “important stories that we believe should be told, those of the experiences of the children in Gaza” had “continuous questions raised about the program.”

Last week it arose that Gaza’s teenage narrator: how to survive a war zone is the son of a Hamas official, a Deputy Minister of Agriculture in Gaza, who has a doctorate from the University of Huddersfield.

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The documentary has been taken and will not be transmitted again in its current form or will return to Iplayer, after the BBC acknowledged that there were ‘serious failures’ in production.

Ofcom has now written a letter to the BBC, claiming that it has “continuous concerns about the nature and seriousness of these failures and the negative impact they have on the public of confidence in the journalism of the BBC”.

“It is crucial that the causes of these errors are investigated, and that the systems are implemented to ensure that they cannot resort.”

The regulator usually allows the BBC to investigate its own complaints, before intervening if they consider it necessary.

In the letter, they say they will follow the same procedure and “will give the BBC the opportunity to carry out their own investigations in this program, as the BBC Board has decided.”

Ofcom added that “they will maintain the situation under near review”, waiting for regular BBC updates on the period of research and progress they make.

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“(We reserve the right to use our powers to intervene if we believe it is necessary to do so, since the BBC Board has decided to be internal investigations,” they said.

Previously, Wes Streeting told Nick Ferrari of LBC at breakfast that the government “hopes to see the action, improvement and responsibility” of the station, which is mainly financed from the pockets of the homes of the United Kingdom.

BBC itself said the production company made some mistakes made by the film and others were committed by the corporation’s own staff, but they were all “unacceptable.”

‘BBC is in a disaster’ about Gaza’s documentary, says Streeting

Streeting, the Minister of Health, told Nick: “The BBC has gotten into a terrible and terrible disaster here and need to look at their editorial standards and how they remain.

“Lisa Nandy, the Secretary of Culture, has made it very clear that she hopes to see the action, improvement and responsibility here.

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“Then, the BBC is now undertaking that job and we hope to hear the results.”

The BBC has said that the production company knew that the child’s father was a member of the Hamas government, but did not tell them.

The company also paid the child’s mother through her sister’s bank account.

David Collier, a research journalist with an approach in Israel and the anti -Semitism that first expressed concerns, asked why the BBC had not been able to discover these problems when he had only taken him hours to find them.

He told Nick that his long -standing skepticism of the BBC’s coverage led him to investigate Gaza’s film.

“When I saw that the documentary said … ‘I need to take a look at what they have done here,” said Collier.

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“He took me about three hours to realize that there was something very bad, and about five to discover Hamas’ links.”

He said that “obviously creates the question: if I can do it from my home in northern London with just Facebook, where were the BBC?”

Keir Starmer also said the documentary was “worrying” on Thursday. The Secretary of Culture, Lisa Nandy, said she had discussed the documentary with the general director of the BBC, Tim Davie, and had expressed her “deep concern.”

Meanwhile, the campaign against anti -Semitism celebrated a protest outside the BBC headquarters on Tuesday.

The BBC said he assumed the “full responsibility” for the failures, since he apologized for the film.

“Nothing is more important than the confidence that our audience has in our journalism,” they added.

“This incident has damaged that trust. While the intention of the documentary was aligned with our purpose, to tell the story of what is happening worldwide, even in the most difficult and dangerous places, the processes and the execution of this program did not achieve our expectations.

“Although the program was carried out by an independent production company, which was commissioned to deliver a fully compatible documentary, the BBC has the final editorial responsibility of this program as a transmission.”

The general director of the BBC has requested an independent review on the realization of the documentary to be issued.

“Peter Johnston, director of complaints and editorial reviews, is independent of the BBC News and directly informs the director general,” said the spokesman.

“It will consider all the complaints and problems that have been raised.

“It will determine if any editorial guidelines have been broken; to quickly address the complaints that have been presented; and allow the BBC to determine whether any disciplinary action is justified in relation to the deficiencies in the realization of this program.

“This will include problems around the use of language, translation and continuity that have also been raised with the BBC.

“We have no plans to transmit the program again in its current form or return it to Iplayer, and will make an additional evaluation once Peter Johnston’s work is completed.”

In a separate statement, the BBC Board said that the mistakes made when producing the documentary were “significant and harmful to the BBC.”

The protesters protested the program outside the BBC offices on Tuesday night, saying that it was “a betrayal of license fees.”

Initially, the BBC maintained the documentary in line with a discharge of additional responsibility before eliminating it from Iplayer while performing more ‘due diligence’.

He is co -directed by Jamie Roberts, a winning filmmaker of the Emmy Award, and Yousef Hammash, a Palestinian journalist winning the Bafia award.

It was filmed by two cameramen that Mr. Rawagh hired as an “additional camera.”

The Tweets of Mr. Rawagh were discovered by the Precision Committee in the Medium East Reports and Analysis (Chamber).

Gideon Falter, executive director of the campaign against anti -Semitism, told LBC News previously: “There are children in Gaza who have appeared in a film.

“One of them is the son of a high -ranking Hamas official. And how the demons can the BBC possibly be sure that there is no money there?

“It simply makes no sense, you know, why would someone pay £ 400,000 for this?

“And what are we supposed to believe, that none of the people who appeared in the movie are really paid for it? It is simply a belief of beggars.”