British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have 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 investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to air a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The regulator's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
