British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Media Regulations, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent held a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the significantly high levels of credibility that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
