BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog

The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.

An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".

The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".

The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.

"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the statement read.

'Potential to Erode Credibility'

The authority's announcement stated: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent served in a post in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.

"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he presented.

"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This failing had the potential to erode the very considerable amounts of confidence that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."

The programme was removed from iPlayer in February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.

A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."