BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to transmit a prime-time statement about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The authority's announcement stated: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to erode the very considerable degrees of confidence that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
