BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog

The BBC committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".

The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".

The regulator has ordered the corporation to broadcast a evening declaration about its findings.

"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.

'Potential to Erode Credibility'

The watchdog's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent held a position in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.

"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the content he shared.

"Trust is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This oversight had the risk to erode the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."

The film was pulled from iPlayer in February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.

A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and language are finalised."