British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's father held a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to damage the significantly high levels of credibility that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's family links emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
