BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom

The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".

Ofcom has instructed the corporation to transmit a peak-time statement about its findings.

"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Erode Confidence'

The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our investigation found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.

"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented.

"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This error had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."

The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it breached the organization's content policies on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."