British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to transmit a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's report stated: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent served in a role in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the significantly high degrees of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the online platform in last February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review determined it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
