British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the corporation to transmit a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to air a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our probe determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a television network and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
