British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary 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 documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to air a evening statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The authority's report stated: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
