BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to air a evening declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our investigation found that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's father served in a position in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the significantly high levels of credibility that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's family links emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
