British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are directing the corporation to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in July an internal BBC review found it breached the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
