BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Media Regulations, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our investigation determined that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's father served in a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the very considerable amounts of confidence that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in July an internal BBC review found it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
