British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The authority's announcement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent served in a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the significantly high amounts of credibility that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
