British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the corporation to air a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are directing the BBC to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
