BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Media Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator 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, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the corporation to transmit a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the significantly high amounts of trust that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
