BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to air a evening announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our investigation determined that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the significantly high degrees of credibility that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
