BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe found that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's father served in a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the significantly high degrees of confidence that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from iPlayer in February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
