British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Media Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a evening announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the very considerable amounts of credibility that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
