British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to air a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to erode the significantly high degrees of credibility that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
