BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog 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 already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe found that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's parent served in a post in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the content he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's family links came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and language are finalised."
