BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the BBC to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the BBC to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's father occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a television network and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and language are determined."
