BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the corporation to transmit a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our investigation determined that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent held a position in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to erode the very considerable degrees of trust that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
