British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to transmit a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a post in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret 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 confirmed."
