BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Media Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to air a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The regulator's statement said: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the significantly high levels of credibility that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson 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 broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
