British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the corporation to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The authority's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to damage the very considerable levels of trust that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the online platform in February after the boy's family links emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
