BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the corporation to air a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our investigation found that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the very considerable degrees of trust that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
