British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Media Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the corporation to broadcast a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
