BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, 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 film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to air a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's announcement said: "Our probe determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and language are determined."