British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the corporation to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's report said: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a television network and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to undermine the very considerable levels of trust that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's family links emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and language are finalised."
