British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to air a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a post in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's family links came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it violated the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and language are finalised."
