BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Media Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the BBC to air a evening declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The authority's announcement said: "Our probe concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent served in a position in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
