BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Media Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to air a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to air a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The authority's statement said: "Our investigation concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to undermine the very considerable levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
