British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our investigation determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent served in a role in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship 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 very considerable levels of trust that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
