BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to air a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's report declared: "Our investigation determined that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's father occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
