BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster 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 determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the corporation to broadcast a evening statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's report said: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent held a post in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the very considerable levels of confidence that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
