British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a television network and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
