British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Media Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to air a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the BBC to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to erode the significantly high levels of credibility that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
