BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Rules, Declares Ofcom

The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.

An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".

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

The authority has ordered the corporation to air a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.

"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.

'Possibility to Damage Trust'

The watchdog's report said: "Our probe concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent occupied a position 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 voice and the content he presented.

"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This failing had the risk to erode the significantly high levels of trust that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."

The programme was removed from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.

A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."