BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog

The BBC committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.

An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".

The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".

The authority has instructed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.

"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.

'Potential to Erode Credibility'

The authority's statement said: "Our probe found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.

"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he presented.

"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a television network and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.

"This oversight had the possibility to erode the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.

A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."