UK media regulator finds BBC in 'serious breach' of rules for documentary featuring son of Hamas terrorist

The United Kingdom's media regulator found that The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was in "serious breach" of its rules after it was revealed that the son of a Hamas terrorist was featured in a documentary. 

On Friday, the Office of Communications (OfCom), an independent agency overseen by the UK's Parliament, released findings from its investigation into "Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone," concluding that the BBC's "failure" in disclosing that its narrator, 13-year-old Abdullah, was the son of a prominent Hamas official was "materially misleading."

"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC," Ofcom said. "This failing had the potential to erode the significantly high levels of trust that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual program about the Israel-Gaza war. " 

"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it added.

BBC REPORT FINDS GAZA DOCUMENTARY NARRATED BY HAMAS TERRORIST'S SON BREACHED EDITORIAL STANDARDS

UK regulator Ofcom found the BBC in "serious breach" of rules after a Gaza documentary didn't disclose to viewers that its narrator was the son of a Hamas terrorist. (iStock/Getty)

The BBC has accepted Ofcom's findings and ruling. 

"The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code," a BBC spokesperson said in a statement in a report published by the outlet.

"We have apologized for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalized," the spokesperson continued. 

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The BBC noted that it had not sanctioned and been forced to make an on-air apology by Ofcom since 2009.

The controversy began in February when it aired "Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone," which followed four young people with ages ranging from 10-24 living in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas war.

The film soon faced backlash after investigative journalist David Collier revealed that Abdullah was, in fact, the son of Hamas' deputy minister of agriculture.

The BBC removed its documentary "Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone" from its streaming platform. (Getty Images)

The BBC issued an apology and later pulled the documentary from its streaming platform. 

"Since the transmission of our documentary on Gaza, the BBC has become aware of the family connections of the film’s narrator, a child called Abdullah. We’ve promised our audiences the highest standards of transparency, so it is only right that as a result of this new information, we add some more detail to the film before its retransmission. We apologize for the omission of that detail from the original film," the BBC said in a statement at the time.

In July, the outlet concluded that the documentary breached its editorial standards. 

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An internal investigation found that the BBC was unaware of Abdullah’s lineage prior to the documentary’s broadcast, but three members of the production company Hoyo Films did know that the boy’s father was a Hamas official. 

The probe, however, criticized the broadcaster for not being "sufficiently proactive" with its due diligence ahead of broadcast, and admonished it for a "lack of critical oversight of unanswered or partially answered questions" regarding the documentary ahead of broadcast. 

The review claimed that the use of the Hamas-linked narrator did not influence the content of the film, but said the inclusion of the boy was "not appropriate."

"We are owning where we have made mistakes, finding out what went wrong, acting on the findings, and we've said we're sorry," BBC News CEO Deborah Turness told the BBC's Radio 4 at the time.

The BBC issued an apology and conducted its own investigation concluding the documentary did not meet its editorial standards. (Reuters/Toby Melville)

The BBC vowed to take steps to address the failure, including issuing new guidance on the use of narrators in documentaries centering on controversial topics, the creation of a new leadership role focusing on documentaries and a new review process that ensures that "no high-risk long form programs can be formally commissioned until all potential compliance considerations are considered and listed.

Fox News' David Spector and Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.

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