BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the corporation to transmit a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to erode the significantly high amounts of credibility that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement 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 accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."