British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, States UK Media Regulator

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

An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".

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

The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time announcement about its findings.

"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.

'Possibility to Damage Credibility'

The authority's statement said: "Our investigation found that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent served in a post in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.

"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the information he provided.

"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.

"This error had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.

A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and language are finalised."