BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog

The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

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

The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".

The authority has directed the BBC to broadcast a evening statement about its decisions.

"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Undermine Credibility'

The regulator's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.

"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he provided.

"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.

"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the significantly high degrees of credibility that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."

The documentary was removed from the online platform in last February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.

A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

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