BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to broadcast a evening statement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The authority's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's father served in a post in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the very considerable degrees of credibility that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
