British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the corporation to broadcast a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The regulator's report said: "Our probe found that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to damage the very considerable levels of confidence that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
