British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, States UK Media Regulator

The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".

The regulator has instructed the BBC to air a prime-time declaration about its findings.

"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.

'Risk to Undermine Confidence'

The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe found that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.

"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he presented.

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

"This failing had the risk to undermine the significantly high levels of confidence that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."

The programme was removed from iPlayer in February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.

A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, 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 its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."