BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a evening announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's father occupied a role in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it violated the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
