British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's statement said: "Our probe concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
