BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Media Rules, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the BBC to broadcast a evening declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father occupied a role in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the significantly high degrees of confidence that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
