BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Media Standards, Says UK Media Regulator

The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

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

The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".

The regulator has directed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.

"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.

'Potential to Erode Trust'

The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.

"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the content he presented.

"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.

"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of confidence that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."

The programme was pulled from the online platform in February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.

A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."