BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's statement said: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's father held a role in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
