BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, States Ofcom
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to air a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's father held a role in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to undermine the significantly high degrees of confidence that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the online platform in last February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it violated the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."