BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Media Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the BBC to air a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the corporation to air a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's report said: "Our probe determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's parent held a role in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and language are determined."
