BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our probe found that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
