British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's report said: "Our investigation found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father served in a role in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to damage the significantly high degrees of trust that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's family links came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
