BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's report stated: "Our probe determined that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a television network and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to erode the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."