🔗 Share this article

The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.

An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".

The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".

Ofcom has directed the BBC to broadcast a evening declaration about its findings.

"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it said.

'Potential to Erode Trust'

The watchdog's report said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.

"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the information he shared.

"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.

"This error had the risk to undermine the very considerable amounts of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."

The film was removed from iPlayer in February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it breached the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and language are finalised."