BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's father served in a post in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to damage the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
