British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to air a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's report stated: "Our investigation concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's father occupied a position in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to erode the significantly high amounts of confidence that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."