British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, States UK Media Regulator

The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".

Ofcom has ordered the BBC to transmit a evening declaration about its decisions.

"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," it said.

'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'

The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our probe found that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a post in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.

"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the content he shared.

"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.

"This failing had the possibility to erode the very considerable amounts of confidence that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."

The film was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the boy's family links came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.

A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."