BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Media Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to air a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's report said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a television network and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error 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 pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review found it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and language are determined."