British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to air a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The authority's report said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's father served in a role in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
