BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Media Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to air a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to erode the significantly high amounts of confidence that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
