British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to transmit a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's report said: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review found it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
