BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Major' Breach of Media Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to transmit a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our probe found that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's family links emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
