BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Media Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to broadcast a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's statement stated: "Our investigation found that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father served in a role in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement 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 corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
