BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator

The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".

The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".

Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time declaration about its findings.

"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be determined," it said.

'Potential to Undermine Credibility'

The authority's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent served in a post in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.

"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he shared.

"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.

"This oversight had the possibility to damage the very considerable amounts of trust that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."

The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

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