BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to transmit a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The authority's statement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's father occupied a post in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a television network and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the very considerable levels of trust that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
