British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to air a prime-time statement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
