BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Media Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The authority's report stated: "Our probe found that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent served in a position in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to erode the very considerable degrees of confidence that viewers 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The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings 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 corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
