BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to broadcast a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
