BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the BBC to air a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The authority's report said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to damage the significantly high levels of trust that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
