BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog

The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".

Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to air a evening declaration about its findings.

"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast 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," it said.

'Possibility to Erode Credibility'

The regulator's statement stated: "Our investigation found that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's father occupied a role in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.

"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the content he shared.

"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.

"This error had the possibility to undermine the significantly high degrees of trust that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and language are determined."