BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Regulations, Declares Ofcom

The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".

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

Ofcom has instructed the BBC to air a peak-time statement about its decisions.

"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Damage Confidence'

The authority's report declared: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.

"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he shared.

"Trust 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 very considerable levels of confidence that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's family links emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme 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 comply with the authority's determination in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."