British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Media Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to broadcast a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it violated the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
