British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Media Rules, Says Ofcom
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's report said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
