BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Media Regulations, Declares Ofcom

The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.

An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".

The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".

The regulator has directed the corporation to transmit a evening statement about its decisions.

"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Damage Confidence'

The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.

"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he presented.

"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.

"This failing had the possibility to erode the very considerable degrees of credibility that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."

The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.

A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."