BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator 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, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a evening announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The authority's announcement said: "Our investigation concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the very considerable levels of confidence that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and language are finalised."
