British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Media Regulations, States UK Media Regulator

The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.

An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".

The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".

The authority has directed the corporation to broadcast a evening announcement about its conclusions.

"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are directing the corporation to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.

'Risk to Damage Credibility'

The authority's statement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent held a post in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.

"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the details he provided.

"Trust is at the center of the bond between a television network and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.

"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."

The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.

A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."