BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Breach of Media Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog

The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.

An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".

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

Ofcom has ordered the corporation to transmit a peak-time announcement about its findings.

"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the corporation to air a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.

'Risk to Undermine Confidence'

The regulator's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.

"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he presented.

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

"This failing had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong levels of trust that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."

The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.

A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and language are finalised."