British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC 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 administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to air a evening statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review found it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."