British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to broadcast a evening declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to damage the significantly high levels of trust that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
