BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Media Rules, States Ofcom

The public service broadcaster 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 son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

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

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

The authority has ordered the BBC to air a prime-time statement about its conclusions.

"Since this amounts to 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 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," it said.

'Possibility to Damage Confidence'

The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent held a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.

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

"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.

"This oversight had the risk to damage the significantly high amounts of credibility that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."

The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.

A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 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 directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."