BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Media Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to air a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our investigation found that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of trust that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
