British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our investigation determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to damage the very considerable levels of confidence that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and language are determined."