British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Media Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to transmit a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The authority's report stated: "Our investigation determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to undermine the significantly high amounts of trust that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
