British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Says Ofcom

The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".

The authority has ordered the corporation to air a peak-time announcement about its decisions.

"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Undermine Trust'

The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.

"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he provided.

"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.

"This error had the potential to undermine the very considerable amounts of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."

The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."