British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry 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 already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to transmit a evening statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The authority's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's father served in a post in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret 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 confirmed."
