British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, States UK Media Regulator

The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".

Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.

"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to air a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the statement read.

'Possibility to Damage Credibility'

The authority's report said: "Our investigation found that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.

"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the content he provided.

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

"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the significantly high amounts of credibility that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."

The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.

A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, 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 Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."