BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Media Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a documentary 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 the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to air a evening declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our investigation found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent held a position in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and language are determined."