BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to air a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's report declared: "Our investigation determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father occupied a role in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable amounts of trust that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance 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 truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
