British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator

The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

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

The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".

The authority has instructed the broadcaster to air a peak-time statement about its decisions.

"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.

'Potential to Damage Credibility'

The authority's report declared: "Our probe determined that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.

"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he shared.

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

"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."

The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.

A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings 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 regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."