BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are directing the corporation to air a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent served in a position in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
