BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the corporation to transmit a evening statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a television network and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to erode the significantly high degrees of trust that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and language are finalised."
