BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog

The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.

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

The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".

Ofcom has ordered the corporation to transmit a prime-time declaration about its findings.

"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the statement read.

'Potential to Damage Trust'

The regulator's announcement stated: "Our probe found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent served in a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.

"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the details he shared.

"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.

"This failing had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."

The programme was removed from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.

A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."