British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Media Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The authority's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
