British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the corporation to air a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's father held a position in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review determined it breached the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
