British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog

The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".

The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".

The regulator has ordered the corporation to transmit a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.

"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Erode Trust'

The watchdog's report declared: "Our probe determined that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent served in a position in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.

"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the information he shared.

"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.

"This oversight had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.

A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."