British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to air a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the BBC to air a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's report stated: "Our probe found that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent served in a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's family links emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
