BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Media Standards, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to transmit a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The authority's report stated: "Our investigation found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
