BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the BBC to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our investigation found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's father served in a role in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's family links emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 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 date and language are confirmed."
