BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our probe determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's father served in a position in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the very considerable levels of trust that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
