BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Rules, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from iPlayer in February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."