BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog

The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.

An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".

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

The authority has ordered the BBC to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its findings.

"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to air a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Erode Confidence'

The authority's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.

"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.

"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the very considerable amounts of confidence that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."

The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.

A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."