BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Media Regulations, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in 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 representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the BBC to transmit a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the corporation to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The authority's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong levels of trust that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and language are determined."
