British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into 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 significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the corporation to air a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are directing the BBC to air a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The authority's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a television network and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to damage the significantly high levels of trust that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the online platform in February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."