BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time statement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our probe concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the very considerable degrees of trust that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
