British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a evening announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our probe found that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience 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 core of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to erode the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
