British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to broadcast a evening statement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent held a post in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a television network and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the significantly high levels of credibility that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination 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 truthfulness, which reflects 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 comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
