BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog

The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son 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 programme was "materially misleading".

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

Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.

"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," it said.

'Possibility to Undermine Trust'

The watchdog's report said: "Our investigation found that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent served in a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.

"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.

"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This failing had the possibility to damage the very considerable degrees of trust that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."

The documentary was removed from iPlayer in February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.

A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and language are finalised."