British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog

The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".

Ofcom has directed the corporation to transmit a evening statement about its findings.

"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," it said.

'Possibility to Erode Confidence'

The regulator's report declared: "Our investigation found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.

"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he presented.

"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a television network and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.

"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the significantly high levels of trust that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."

The documentary was removed from the online platform in February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it breached the organization's content policies on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in line 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 accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."