BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Breach of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog

The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".

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

The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a evening declaration about its findings.

"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.

'Potential to Damage Confidence'

The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe determined that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.

"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the information he presented.

"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This oversight had the possibility to damage the very considerable amounts of trust that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.

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 documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."