BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator

The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.

An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".

The regulator has instructed the BBC to air a evening declaration about its conclusions.

"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the corporation to air a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.

'Risk to Undermine Credibility'

The watchdog's statement said: "Our probe found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's father served in a post in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.

"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the details he shared.

"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This oversight had the potential to undermine the very considerable amounts of confidence that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."

The documentary was removed from the online platform in February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.

A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."