BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Media Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog

The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

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

The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".

The regulator has ordered the BBC to air a prime-time statement about its decisions.

"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.

'Risk to Erode Trust'

The regulator's report stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian served in 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 judgment of the presenter and the information he shared.

"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.

"This oversight had the possibility to damage the very considerable degrees of trust that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."

The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.

A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions 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 regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."