British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to broadcast a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's parent held a role in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the very considerable amounts of trust that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
