BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog

The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

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

The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".

Ofcom has directed the corporation to broadcast a evening declaration about its findings.

"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.

'Risk to Erode Credibility'

The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's father served in a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.

"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he presented.

"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.

"This failing had the risk to undermine the very considerable degrees of credibility that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."

The film was removed from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.

A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."