BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's report stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
