BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to air a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are directing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our probe found that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to undermine the very considerable levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
