BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to transmit a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our investigation determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's parent served in a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
