British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's report said: "Our investigation found that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's father held a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the significantly high degrees of trust that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's family links came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
