BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the offspring 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 concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The authority's report said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high amounts of confidence that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film 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 determined it breached the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
