BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom

The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.

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

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

The authority has ordered the corporation to air a evening announcement about its decisions.

"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.

'Possibility to Erode Trust'

The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father served in a post in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.

"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the content he shared.

"Trust is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.

"This oversight had the risk to damage the significantly high degrees of confidence that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."

The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."