British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Media Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the BBC to air a evening declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are directing the BBC to transmit a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's statement said: "Our investigation determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's parent served in a role in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the significantly high amounts of credibility that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the online platform in last February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and language are determined."
