BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Media Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to broadcast a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's father occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to erode the significantly high levels of credibility that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
