BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says UK Media Regulator

The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

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

The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".

The regulator has ordered the BBC to broadcast a prime-time statement about its decisions.

"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.

'Potential to Damage Confidence'

The regulator's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent served in a position in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.

"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the details he provided.

"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.

"This oversight had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."

The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.

A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."