BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the BBC to broadcast a evening statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
