BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the corporation to broadcast a evening statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent served in a post in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to damage the significantly high amounts of confidence that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
