British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's report stated: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
