British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Rules, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to air a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's father held a role in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the very considerable levels of confidence that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
