British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the corporation to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe determined that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent held a post in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the significantly high degrees of credibility that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and language are determined."
