British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to air a evening statement about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's report stated: "Our investigation found that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father served in a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the very considerable levels of confidence that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
