British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The regulator's report said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's father served in a post in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of confidence that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
