British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Media Rules, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the BBC to air a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's announcement stated: "Our probe determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father occupied a post in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to undermine the very considerable degrees of trust that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the online platform in February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in July an internal BBC review found it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
