BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog

The BBC committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.

An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".

Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening statement about its conclusions.

"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.

'Potential to Damage Credibility'

The authority's statement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.

"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he presented.

"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This failing had the risk to undermine the significantly high amounts of confidence that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."

The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it infringed the organization's content policies on truthfulness.

A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."