BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to air a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the significantly high levels of confidence that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 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 follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
