British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the BBC to transmit a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our probe concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of credibility that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it breached the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
