British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to erode the significantly high degrees of confidence that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and language are finalised."