British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The authority's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the very considerable amounts of trust that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
