BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to transmit a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's report stated: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent held a position in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
