British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to erode the very considerable degrees of credibility that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."