BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Media Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's report said: "Our investigation found that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's father served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a television network and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to damage the very considerable amounts of trust that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
