BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the corporation to air a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The regulator's report declared: "Our probe determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's father occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and language are determined."
