BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The authority's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to erode the significantly high amounts of trust that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
