British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The authority's report declared: "Our investigation determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent held a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and language are finalised."
