British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Media Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to transmit a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our investigation determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the significantly high amounts of trust that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
