British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to transmit a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our probe found that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review determined it breached the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
