British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to air a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to erode the very considerable levels of trust that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
