BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to broadcast a evening statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father occupied a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and language are determined."
