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

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

An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".

Ofcom has ordered the BBC to broadcast a evening announcement about its findings.

"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.

'Possibility to Erode Trust'

The regulator's statement said: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.

"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he provided.

"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.

"This oversight had the risk to erode the very considerable amounts of confidence that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."

The film was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review found it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.

A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and language are finalised."