BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to air a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
