🔗 Share this article

The BBC committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".

The authority has ordered the BBC to transmit a prime-time declaration about its findings.

"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be determined," it said.

'Risk to Damage Trust'

The authority's statement declared: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.

"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he shared.

"Trust is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.

"This error had the potential to erode the very considerable degrees of trust that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."

The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.

A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."