BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the corporation to broadcast a evening announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our investigation determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
