BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog

The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".

Ofcom has directed the corporation to air a prime-time announcement about its decisions.

"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the corporation to air a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.

'Possibility to Damage Trust'

The authority's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent held a post in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.

"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he presented.

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

"This oversight had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."

The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.

A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."