BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to air a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe found that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the significantly high levels of credibility that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
