BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog

The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.

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

The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".

The authority has instructed the corporation to transmit a evening declaration about its decisions.

"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the statement read.

'Risk to Erode Confidence'

The authority's report said: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent held a post in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.

"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he shared.

"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This oversight had the possibility to erode the very considerable levels of confidence that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."

The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."