BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Says Ofcom

The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.

An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".

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

The authority has instructed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.

"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the statement read.

'Risk to Erode Trust'

The regulator's report said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.

"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he provided.

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

"This failing had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."

The programme was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.

A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."