British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Rules, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the BBC to transmit a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent served in a role in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the very considerable amounts of trust that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results 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 reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
