BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Breach of Media Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's report declared: "Our investigation found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to damage the significantly high levels of credibility that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."