British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The authority's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from iPlayer in February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."