British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, States Ofcom
The BBC committed a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the significantly high amounts of credibility that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"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 date and wording are finalised."
