BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Regulations, States Ofcom

The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".

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

The authority has directed the broadcaster to transmit a evening announcement about its conclusions.

"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Undermine Trust'

The authority's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.

"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he shared.

"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a television network and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.

"This failing had the possibility to erode the very considerable levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."

The film was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.

A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."