BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Media Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to erode the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
