BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to air a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
