British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The BBC committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the corporation to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review found it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and language are determined."
