British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Media Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's father held a position in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the significantly high degrees of trust that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's family links came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
