BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it breached the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
