BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Media Standards, Says Ofcom

The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".

The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".

The authority has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening announcement about its decisions.

"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.

'Potential to Undermine Credibility'

The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.

"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he shared.

"Trust is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high degrees of confidence that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."

The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the organization's content policies on factual correctness.

A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and language are finalised."