BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Media Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to air a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are directing the corporation to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a television network and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong levels of trust that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the online platform in last February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
