British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog

The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.

An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".

The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".

The regulator has directed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.

"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," it said.

'Possibility to Damage Trust'

The regulator's report declared: "Our investigation found that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.

"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the information he presented.

"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This error had the risk to undermine the very considerable levels of confidence that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The programme was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the corporation's content policies on accuracy.

A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."