British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father served in a role in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the significantly high amounts of confidence that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and language are finalised."
