BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, States Ofcom

The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".

Ofcom has instructed the BBC to air a prime-time declaration about its decisions.

"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.

'Risk to Erode Credibility'

The regulator's announcement stated: "Our probe determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent served in a role in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.

"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he provided.

"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This failing had the risk to erode the very considerable degrees of trust that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."

The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.

A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."