BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog

The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".

The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".

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

"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Undermine Trust'

The regulator's report said: "Our investigation found that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's father served in a post in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.

"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.

"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a television network and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.

"This failing had the potential to erode the significantly high levels of credibility that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was pulled from the online platform in February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the organization's content policies on truthfulness.

A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."