British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to air a evening announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to erode the significantly high amounts of confidence that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
