BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The authority's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
