BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The authority's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to undermine the very considerable amounts of credibility that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
