British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The authority's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a television network and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of confidence that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
