British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Breach of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to air a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's report stated: "Our probe determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
