BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the BBC to transmit a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our investigation determined that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's parent held a post in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the online platform in February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
