BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined 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".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The authority's statement said: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review determined it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."