BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the corporation to transmit a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent served in a post in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of confidence that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
