BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Media Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the BBC to transmit a evening statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to transmit 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 Trust'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong levels of trust that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
