British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's report said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of trust that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
