British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent served in a role in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of trust that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in last February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
