British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's father held a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
