British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to air a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent held a post in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to damage the significantly high amounts of credibility that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
