British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the boy's family links came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
