BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The authority's report said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
