BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Regulations, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to transmit a evening statement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The authority's report declared: "Our investigation found that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a position in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the very considerable degrees of credibility that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
