BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the corporation to air a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father held a role in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the very considerable amounts of trust that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
