British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, States Ofcom

The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".

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

The authority has ordered the corporation to broadcast a prime-time statement about its findings.

"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.

'Possibility to Damage Credibility'

The regulator's report stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent held a position in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.

"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the content he shared.

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

"This failing had the possibility to damage the significantly high levels of trust that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."

The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the organization's content policies on accuracy.

A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."