BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Media Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a television network and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of confidence that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
