BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Media Standards, States Ofcom

The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".

Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a evening declaration about its decisions.

"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Damage Confidence'

The authority's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.

"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the content he provided.

"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.

"This failing had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."

The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's family links emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.

A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."