BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to air a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The authority's report said: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a television network and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to erode the very considerable amounts of trust that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
