BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to air a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The authority's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father occupied a role in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to erode the significantly high levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."