BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Ofcom
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to air a evening announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The authority's report stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
