BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are directing the corporation to air a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
