British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to air a evening statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to undermine the very considerable degrees of trust that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
