British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog

The BBC committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".

The authority has directed the corporation to transmit a evening declaration about its decisions.

"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," it said.

'Risk to Undermine Credibility'

The authority's statement stated: "Our investigation found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent held a role in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.

"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the content he presented.

"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.

"This error had the possibility to undermine the significantly high amounts of trust that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."

The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.

A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."