BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the corporation to broadcast a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The authority's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's father held a role in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to damage the very considerable amounts of confidence that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."