British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to air a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to damage the very considerable levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line 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 truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and language are determined."
