BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a evening announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our probe found that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the significantly high amounts of confidence that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
