BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father held a role in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a television network and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
