British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are directing the corporation to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our probe found that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the significantly high levels of trust that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the online platform in February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
