British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to air a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's father held a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to damage the significantly high degrees of confidence that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in last February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and language are finalised."