BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Media Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog

The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

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

The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".

The regulator has directed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time statement about its findings.

"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the BBC to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.

'Potential to Undermine Trust'

The authority's announcement stated: "Our probe found that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's father occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.

"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he provided.

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

"This error had the possibility to damage the significantly high degrees of credibility that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was removed from iPlayer in February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.

A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."