BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the corporation to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to damage the very considerable amounts of confidence that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision 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 corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
