British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Breach of Media Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to air a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the BBC to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and language are determined."
