BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Media Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a evening statement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's statement said: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's father occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
