BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, Says UK Media Regulator

The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".

The authority has ordered the BBC to air a peak-time declaration about its findings.

"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Damage Confidence'

The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation found that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.

"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the content he presented.

"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a television network and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This failing had the possibility to erode the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."

The film was removed from iPlayer in last February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.

A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

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