British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Media Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The authority's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent held a role in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a television network and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."