BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Media Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The regulator's report stated: "Our probe found that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a television network and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the very considerable amounts of trust that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and language are determined."
