British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog

The BBC committed a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".

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

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

"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.

'Risk to Erode Trust'

The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's father served in a post in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.

"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the information he shared.

"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.

"This failing had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was removed from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.

A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."