British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to air a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our investigation found that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement 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 clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
