British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Violation of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to undermine the very considerable amounts of credibility that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it violated the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
