British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to air a evening statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our investigation found that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to damage the significantly high amounts of trust that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
