British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator

The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".

The authority has ordered the BBC to broadcast a prime-time statement about its findings.

"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.

'Potential to Damage Credibility'

The authority's statement stated: "Our investigation found that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.

"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he presented.

"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This failing had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."

The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."