British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are directing the corporation to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the significantly high levels of trust that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
