BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Regulations, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The authority's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the significantly high degrees of credibility that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
