British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to transmit a evening statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to air a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our investigation found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review determined it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
