British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator

The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".

The regulator has instructed the corporation to transmit a evening announcement about its findings.

"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Undermine Trust'

The regulator's report stated: "Our probe determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.

"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the content he provided.

"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.

"This failing had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."

The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.

A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and language are determined."