British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to transmit a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the BBC to air a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father served in a role in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the very considerable amounts of confidence that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
