British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Media Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to transmit a evening announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the corporation to air a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent held a role in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of credibility that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error 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 have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
