BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to broadcast a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent served in a position in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of trust that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
