BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to air a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The authority's announcement said: "Our probe determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's father held a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
