British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, States Ofcom

The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".

The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".

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

"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the corporation to air a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.

'Possibility to Undermine Trust'

The watchdog's report said: "Our probe found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.

"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he presented.

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

"This failing had the possibility to erode the very considerable degrees of trust that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."

The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.

A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."