BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog

The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".

The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".

The authority has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a evening declaration about its conclusions.

"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.

'Potential to Damage Credibility'

The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent held a role in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.

"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he shared.

"Trust is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This failing had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of trust that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."

The film was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.

A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."