British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog

The BBC committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.

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

The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".

Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a evening announcement about its decisions.

"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.

'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'

The authority's statement declared: "Our investigation found that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.

"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he presented.

"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.

"This oversight had the risk to erode the significantly high amounts of trust that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."

The film was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.

A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."