BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our investigation found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent held a position in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the significantly high degrees of credibility that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
