BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's parent served in a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to erode the very considerable degrees of trust that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in July an internal BBC review found it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
