BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary 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 instructed the corporation to transmit a evening declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our probe concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a position in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to erode the very considerable degrees of confidence that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in last February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
