BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to air a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our investigation found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to damage the significantly high amounts of trust that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
