BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to air a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's report stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the very considerable amounts of trust that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's family links came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and language are determined."
