BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog

The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

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

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

The regulator has ordered the corporation to transmit a peak-time announcement about its findings.

"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the BBC to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said.

'Possibility to Erode Credibility'

The regulator's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's father held a position in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.

"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.

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

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

The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and language are determined."