BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says Ofcom

The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".

Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its decisions.

"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the corporation to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.

'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'

The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.

"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he shared.

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

"This error had the potential to undermine the significantly high levels of credibility that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."

The programme was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's family links emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.

A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and language are finalised."