BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Media Regulations, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to broadcast a evening announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our probe found that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the very considerable degrees of credibility that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
