BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Media Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog

The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".

The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".

The regulator has directed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time declaration about its decisions.

"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," it said.

'Risk to Damage Trust'

The regulator's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's father served in a post in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.

"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.

"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.

"This failing had the possibility to damage the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."

The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.

A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement 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 Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."