BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Ofcom

The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".

The authority has directed the BBC to transmit a evening announcement about its findings.

"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.

'Possibility to Undermine Trust'

The watchdog's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.

"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.

"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a television network and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.

"This error had the risk to erode the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."

The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the organization's content policies on truthfulness.

A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and language are confirmed."