BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the corporation to broadcast a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a television network and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to damage the significantly high amounts of credibility that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it breached the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
