BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Ofcom

The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".

The authority has instructed the broadcaster to air a prime-time declaration about its decisions.

"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.

'Risk to Erode Trust'

The watchdog's statement said: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.

"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he provided.

"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.

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

The film was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.

A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."