BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Media Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a evening statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's father served in a position in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high degrees of credibility that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
