BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to air a evening announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a television network and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the very considerable levels of confidence that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
