British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom

The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".

The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".

The authority has ordered the BBC to air a peak-time announcement about its findings.

"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," it said.

'Potential to Erode Confidence'

The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.

"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the details he provided.

"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This oversight had the possibility to damage the very considerable levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."

The film was removed from iPlayer in February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.

A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."