BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Media Rules, Says UK Media Regulator

The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".

The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".

The authority has directed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its decisions.

"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.

'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'

The regulator's announcement stated: "Our probe determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.

"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he presented.

"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.

"This failing had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was removed from the online platform in February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.

A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."