British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator

The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".

The authority has directed the corporation to air a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.

"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the statement read.

'Potential to Erode Trust'

The authority's report said: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent held a role in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.

"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.

"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.

"This oversight had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."

The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.

A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."