BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Media Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are directing the BBC to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The authority's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to undermine the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
