British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Media Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to air a evening statement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our investigation concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and language are determined."
