BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's father served in a position in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
