BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are directing the corporation to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's father served in a position in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
