BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the very considerable levels of trust that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."