BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Breach of Media Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog

The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".

The authority has instructed the BBC to air a evening declaration about its conclusions.

"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.

'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'

The watchdog's report declared: "Our investigation found that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent held a position in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.

"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the content he provided.

"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.

"This error had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."

The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it breached the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and language are confirmed."