🔗 Share this article

The BBC committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.

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

The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".

Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a evening declaration about its decisions.

"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Undermine Credibility'

The authority's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's father held a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.

"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the information he provided.

"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.

"This failing had the potential to erode the significantly high levels of credibility that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."

The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the organization's content policies on accuracy.

A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."