British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are directing the corporation to air a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our probe determined that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
