British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to air a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent served in a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are determined."