British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Media Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to transmit a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's report said: "Our investigation found that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father served in a role in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of credibility that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
