British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to transmit a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The regulator's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a post in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
