BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator

The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".

The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".

Ofcom has directed the BBC to air a evening statement about its decisions.

"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," it said.

'Risk to Undermine Confidence'

The watchdog's report declared: "Our investigation determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.

"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.

"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.

"This oversight had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of credibility that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."

The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.

A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."