BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom

The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".

The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".

The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening statement about its findings.

"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," it said.

'Possibility to Erode Confidence'

The regulator's report declared: "Our investigation found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.

"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the information he provided.

"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.

"This failing had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The programme was removed from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.

A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme 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 the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."