BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog

The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".

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

Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time statement about its decisions.

"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it said.

'Risk to Undermine Trust'

The authority's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.

"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the information he presented.

"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high degrees of trust that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."

The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.

A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, 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 its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."