British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our investigation determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent held a post in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the very considerable levels of confidence that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the broadcaster's content policies 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 significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
