BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Media Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to broadcast a evening declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The authority's statement stated: "Our investigation found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from iPlayer in February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
