BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Media Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator

The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".

The authority has directed the corporation to transmit a evening statement about its findings.

"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.

'Possibility to Erode Trust'

The authority's report stated: "Our probe concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's father served in a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.

"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he presented.

"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This oversight had the possibility to damage the very considerable levels of credibility that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."

The programme was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."