British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to broadcast a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's report stated: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the significantly high amounts of confidence that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the boy's family links came to light, and in July an internal BBC review found it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
