BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Ofcom

The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".

The regulator has ordered the corporation to transmit a peak-time declaration about its findings.

"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.

'Risk to Erode Credibility'

The regulator's statement said: "Our probe determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.

"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he presented.

"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.

"This error had the possibility to undermine the significantly high amounts of credibility that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."

The documentary was removed from the online platform in February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."