British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to air a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's announcement said: "Our investigation found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
