BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to air a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's statement said: "Our investigation found that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father served in a role in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
