BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog

The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.

An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".

The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".

The authority has instructed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.

"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.

'Potential to Erode Credibility'

The regulator's announcement declared: "Our probe determined that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.

"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the information he shared.

"Trust is at the center of the bond between a television network and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.

"This oversight had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."

The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.

A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."