BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The authority's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
