BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in 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 administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to air a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The authority's statement stated: "Our probe determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father served in a position in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a television network and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the online platform in February after the boy's family links came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
