British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to air a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's report said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the significantly high levels of credibility that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the online platform in February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "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 corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
