British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog

The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.

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

The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".

The regulator has instructed the BBC to transmit a evening declaration about its conclusions.

"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it said.

'Potential to Damage Credibility'

The authority's statement said: "Our investigation found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.

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

"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.

"This error had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The documentary was removed from iPlayer in last February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.

A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."