British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Says UK Media Regulator

The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".

The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".

The authority has instructed the BBC to broadcast a evening statement about its decisions.

"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be determined," it said.

'Possibility to Damage Trust'

The watchdog's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent held a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.

"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the content he shared.

"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This error had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."

The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it breached the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.

A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and language are determined."