British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to air a evening announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The authority's announcement stated: "Our investigation found that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's father occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of confidence that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
