BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to air a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are directing the BBC to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a position in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the significantly high levels of credibility that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
