British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to transmit a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's statement said: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent served in a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the very considerable degrees of trust that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
