British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to air a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to air a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The authority's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent held a role in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a television network and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to erode the very considerable amounts of confidence that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
