British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, States UK Media Regulator

The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

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

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

Ofcom has instructed the BBC to air a peak-time statement about its findings.

"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Undermine Trust'

The watchdog's statement said: "Our probe concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.

"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the information he provided.

"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This error had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.

A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."