British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog

The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".

The regulator has directed the corporation to air a peak-time statement about its conclusions.

"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.

'Potential to Erode Trust'

The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's father occupied a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.

"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the content he shared.

"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.

"This oversight had the potential to erode the very considerable amounts of trust that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."

The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.

A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."