BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a evening announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The authority's report declared: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent held a role in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of credibility that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it breached the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
