🔗 Share this article

The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.

An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".

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

Ofcom has directed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its findings.

"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.

'Possibility to Erode Confidence'

The authority's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.

"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he presented.

"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This oversight had the risk to damage the significantly high degrees of trust that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."

The documentary was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's family links came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.

A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and language are determined."