BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog

The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.

An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".

The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".

The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its findings.

"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.

'Risk to Erode Trust'

The regulator's statement said: "Our probe concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.

"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the details he shared.

"Trust is at the core of the connection between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.

"This failing had the possibility to damage the very considerable degrees of confidence that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."

The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.

A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."