BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to transmit a evening statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The regulator's report said: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's father served in a position in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a television network and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the very considerable amounts of trust that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
