BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog

The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

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

The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".

The authority has instructed the BBC to air a evening declaration about its findings.

"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.

'Potential to Undermine Credibility'

The authority's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.

"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the details he provided.

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

"This oversight had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."

The programme was pulled from the online platform in February after the boy's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.

A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

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