BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to air a evening announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe found that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
