BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to air a evening declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our investigation found that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent held a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in last February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
