🔗 Share this article

The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".

The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".

Ofcom has directed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time statement about its findings.

"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to transmit a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," it said.

'Risk to Undermine Confidence'

The authority's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.

"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the details he presented.

"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.

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

The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.

A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and language are finalised."