BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are directing the corporation to air a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The authority's announcement said: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's father served in a position in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the very considerable amounts of credibility that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
