British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
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 prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the corporation to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's statement stated: "Our probe concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to damage the very considerable amounts of credibility that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
