British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Ofcom

The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.

An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".

The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".

The authority has ordered the corporation to broadcast a evening announcement about its decisions.

"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," it said.

'Risk to Erode Confidence'

The authority's announcement stated: "Our investigation found that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.

"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the content he provided.

"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.

"This oversight had the risk to damage the significantly high amounts of confidence that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the corporation's content policies on accuracy.

A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions 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 reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."