British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog

The BBC committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.

An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".

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

Ofcom has instructed the corporation to air a evening declaration about its findings.

"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are instructing 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.

'Potential to Undermine Credibility'

The regulator's statement said: "Our investigation found that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.

"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he presented.

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

"This oversight had the possibility to damage the very considerable levels of trust that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."

The film was pulled from the online platform in last February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.

A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."