BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to transmit a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's father occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the very considerable levels of credibility that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
