BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "major 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 UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to transmit a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's report stated: "Our probe determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's father served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a television network and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the significantly high amounts of credibility that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it breached the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and language are determined."
