British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Rules, Says UK Media Regulator

The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".

Ofcom has directed the corporation to transmit a prime-time announcement about its decisions.

"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.

'Possibility to Erode Trust'

The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.

"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he provided.

"Trust is at the center of the connection between a television network and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This oversight had the possibility to damage the significantly high amounts of confidence that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The programme was removed from iPlayer in February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it breached the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."