BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to broadcast a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The authority's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the significantly high degrees of trust that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
