British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog

The BBC committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".

The regulator has directed the corporation to transmit a evening statement about its decisions.

"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," it said.

'Potential to Erode Trust'

The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our probe found that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.

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

"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This oversight had the possibility to erode the significantly high levels of trust that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."