BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's parent held a role in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to damage the very considerable amounts of credibility that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it infringed the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
