BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a evening declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the online platform in February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in July an internal BBC review found it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"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 timing and wording are finalised."
