BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator

The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

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

The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".

The authority has instructed the corporation to transmit a peak-time announcement about its findings.

"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it said.

'Potential to Damage Credibility'

The authority's report said: "Our investigation found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's father held a position in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.

"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the information he presented.

"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This oversight had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of trust that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."

The film was removed from the online platform in February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.

A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."