BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Says Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into 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 accuracy".
The authority has ordered the BBC to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our probe determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent held a position in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to damage the very considerable degrees of trust that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."