BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing 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 broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a evening statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The authority's report declared: "Our investigation found that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
