BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Media Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the corporation to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's report said: "Our probe concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Trust 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 erode the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it breached the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and language are finalised."
