British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time statement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's report said: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a television network and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the significantly high levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
