BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog

The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".

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

Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its findings.

"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.

'Possibility to Erode Credibility'

The regulator's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.

"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he presented.

"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.

"This failing had the possibility to erode the significantly high levels of trust that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.

A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."