BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the very considerable amounts of credibility that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."