British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Media Standards, States Ofcom

The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".

The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".

Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.

"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.

'Possibility to Damage Confidence'

The regulator's announcement stated: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent served in a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.

"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the content he shared.

"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This failing had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."

The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.

A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and language are finalised."