BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to transmit a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The authority's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent held a role in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the significantly high degrees of credibility that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, 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 authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
