British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child 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 concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to transmit a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are directing the corporation to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The authority's announcement said: "Our investigation determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent held a post in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong levels of trust that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
