British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Media Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to air a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of confidence that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
