British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, States UK Media Regulator

The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.

An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".

The regulator has instructed the corporation to transmit a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.

"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are directing the corporation to air a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.

'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'

The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father served in a post in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.

"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he shared.

"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This failing had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."

The programme was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the organization's content policies on truthfulness.

A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and language are finalised."