BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog

The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.

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

The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".

The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time announcement about its findings.

"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.

'Potential to Damage Credibility'

The regulator's report said: "Our investigation found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.

"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he presented.

"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This oversight had the risk to undermine the very considerable amounts of trust that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.

A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings 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 corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."