BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator

The BBC committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".

The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".

Ofcom has instructed the corporation to broadcast a evening declaration about its conclusions.

"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.

'Potential to Undermine Credibility'

The regulator's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.

"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the information he shared.

"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.

"This error had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong levels of trust that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."

The documentary was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.

A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."