BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Breach of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The authority's announcement stated: "Our investigation found that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the very considerable levels of trust that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
