BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to air a evening declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The authority's statement declared: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable degrees of trust that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."