British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Media Rules, States Ofcom

The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".

The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".

Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time announcement about its findings.

"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Erode Confidence'

The regulator's report said: "Our probe determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's father occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.

"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he shared.

"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This error had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."

The documentary was pulled from the online platform in last February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.

A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and language are finalised."