BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the significantly high degrees of credibility that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
