British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into 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 major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to air a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe found that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father held a position in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the significantly high levels of credibility that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the online platform in February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
