BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Violation of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to transmit a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to erode the very considerable degrees of confidence that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
