BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe determined that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the very considerable degrees of confidence that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
