British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Rules, States Ofcom

The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An probe by the broadcasting watchdog 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 significant failing in relation to factual correctness".

Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a peak-time declaration about its findings.

"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.

'Potential to Damage Trust'

The regulator's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.

"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the content he shared.

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

"This oversight had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."

The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the organization's content policies on accuracy.

A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."