BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are directing the corporation to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our investigation determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a television network and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the very considerable amounts of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it breached the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
