BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Media Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the corporation to transmit a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father served in a role in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and language are determined."
