BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to erode the very considerable amounts of trust that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it breached the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
