British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The authority's report stated: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the boy's family links emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision 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 factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
