British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Rules, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to air a evening announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The authority's report said: "Our probe found that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to damage the very considerable degrees of trust that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the boy's family links came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
