BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to broadcast a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our investigation found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father served in a post in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
