British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by 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 chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The authority's report stated: "Our investigation concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a television network and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the significantly high degrees of credibility that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from iPlayer in February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in July an internal BBC review determined it breached the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."