BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Ofcom

The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.

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

The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".

Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a evening announcement about its conclusions.

"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the corporation to transmit a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," it said.

'Potential to Erode Confidence'

The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.

"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he provided.

"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.

"This oversight had the risk to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have placed 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 emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."