British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Media Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog

The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.

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

The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".

The regulator has instructed the corporation to broadcast a evening announcement about its conclusions.

"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.

'Potential to Undermine Trust'

The authority's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian held a position 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 assessment of the voice and the information he shared.

"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.

"This error had the possibility to damage the significantly high amounts of confidence that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."

The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the boy's family links emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."