British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's report said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's parent served in a position in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
