BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, States Ofcom

The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".

The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.

"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.

'Potential to Undermine Credibility'

The regulator's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's father served in a position in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.

"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he provided.

"Trust is at the core of the connection between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.

"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."

The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it violated the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

A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."