BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to air a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our investigation determined that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the significantly high levels of credibility that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."