BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the corporation to transmit a evening announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our investigation found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent held a role in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the very considerable degrees of trust that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, 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 authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
