🔗 Share this article

The BBC committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.

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

The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".

The regulator has directed the BBC to air a evening announcement about its findings.

"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.

'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'

The authority's announcement declared: "Our investigation determined that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent held a role in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.

"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he shared.

"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of trust that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."

The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.

A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."