British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Media Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The authority's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to undermine the significantly high levels of trust that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error 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 issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
