British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog

The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".

Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a evening statement about its decisions.

"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are directing the BBC to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.

'Risk to Undermine Confidence'

The regulator's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's father served in a position in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.

"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he shared.

"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.

"This failing had the possibility to undermine the significantly high amounts of credibility that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."

The programme was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in July an internal BBC review determined it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."