British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog

The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".

The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".

The authority has directed the BBC to air a evening statement about its conclusions.

"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.

'Risk to Damage Trust'

The authority's report said: "Our investigation determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's father held a role in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.

"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he presented.

"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a television network and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.

"This oversight had the potential to undermine the very considerable amounts of credibility that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."

The documentary was removed from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.

A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."