BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, States Ofcom

The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".

The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".

Ofcom has instructed the corporation to air a evening statement about its conclusions.

"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," it said.

'Possibility to Damage Confidence'

The authority's report said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.

"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the content he presented.

"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.

"This oversight had the risk to undermine the significantly high levels of confidence that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.

A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and language are finalised."