BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom

The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".

The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".

The regulator has instructed the BBC to transmit a evening announcement about its decisions.

"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Damage Confidence'

The watchdog's report said: "Our investigation found that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.

"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the details he provided.

"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.

"This error had the potential to erode the significantly high amounts of credibility that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."

The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.

A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."