BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to transmit a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The authority's report stated: "Our probe found that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the very considerable amounts of confidence that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
