British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, States Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to transmit a evening declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's report said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent held a role in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
