BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Media Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to transmit a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to air a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the very considerable degrees of trust that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
