British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to transmit a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation 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.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The authority's announcement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent served in a position in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a television network and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the significantly high levels of credibility that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from the online platform in February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
