BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the BBC to air a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of credibility that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
