British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Media Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's report said: "Our probe determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent held a role in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."