British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Violation of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the corporation to transmit a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our probe concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
