BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the very considerable amounts of trust that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
