BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined 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 accuracy".
The authority has directed the BBC to transmit a prime-time statement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's report said: "Our probe determined that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to erode the very considerable levels of credibility that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
