British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the BBC to broadcast a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The authority's announcement stated: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong levels of trust that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
