BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's report said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the significantly high levels of credibility that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
