BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, States Ofcom

The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".

The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".

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

"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," it said.

'Risk to Undermine Trust'

The regulator's report stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent served in a position in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.

"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the information he shared.

"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.

"This failing had the possibility to damage the very considerable amounts of trust that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."

The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.

A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."