British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by 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 BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the corporation to transmit a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's statement said: "Our investigation determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father served in a position in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the significantly high amounts of confidence that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
