British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to broadcast a evening statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's statement said: "Our probe found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the significantly high amounts of confidence that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and language are determined."
