British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Media Rules, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog

The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".

Ofcom has directed the BBC to transmit a evening announcement about its conclusions.

"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to air a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," it said.

'Risk to Undermine Credibility'

The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe found that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's parent served in a role in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.

"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the content he presented.

"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This failing had the risk to undermine the very considerable levels of trust that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."

The documentary was removed from the online platform in February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.

A representative for the broadcaster stated: "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 corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."