BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Media Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the BBC to air a evening statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's report said: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to damage the significantly high amounts of trust that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
