British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to transmit a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the BBC to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent served in a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to undermine the very considerable amounts of confidence that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
