BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to broadcast a evening declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's father served in a post in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to undermine the significantly high amounts of confidence that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's family links came to light, and in July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement 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 factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
