British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to air a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The authority's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
