BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, States Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom 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 serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
