BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to transmit a evening declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's father served in a position in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the significantly high degrees of confidence that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."