British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's report said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience 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 core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the boy's family links emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
