BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to transmit a evening declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The authority's report said: "Our investigation concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to damage the very considerable degrees of credibility that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
