British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our probe found that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to erode the very considerable degrees of credibility that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."