British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to air a evening announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's report said: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and language are finalised."
