British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Media Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to transmit a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
