British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, States Ofcom

The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".

The regulator has instructed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its decisions.

"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," it said.

'Potential to Undermine Credibility'

The watchdog's report stated: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.

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

"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a television network and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.

"This error had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."