British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Media Standards, Declares Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into 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 major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to air a evening statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our investigation found that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the significantly high degrees of trust that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
