British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to air a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent served in a position in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."