British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our probe determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
