British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The authority's report declared: "Our probe determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent held a position in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the significantly high degrees of credibility that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
