BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to erode the significantly high amounts of confidence that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance 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 corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."