British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to transmit a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our investigation found that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's family links emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
