BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to air a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our investigation found that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's father held a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to erode the significantly high amounts of confidence that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
