British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to broadcast a evening declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The authority's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's father served in a post in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the significantly high amounts of trust that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."