BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the corporation to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the corporation to air a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The authority's report declared: "Our investigation found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent held a post in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a television network and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the very considerable levels of confidence that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."