BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to air a evening statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the very considerable levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
