BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog

The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".

The authority has directed the BBC to air a peak-time statement about its decisions.

"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," it said.

'Risk to Erode Credibility'

The watchdog's report said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.

"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the content he provided.

"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.

"This error had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."

The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."