BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom

The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".

Ofcom has directed the BBC to broadcast a evening statement about its findings.

"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.

'Possibility to Erode Trust'

The authority's statement said: "Our investigation found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.

"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the information he shared.

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

"This error had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."

The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in July an internal BBC review determined it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.

A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."