BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Standards, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the corporation to air a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to damage the significantly high degrees of credibility that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
