BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a evening statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the BBC to air a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the very considerable amounts of trust that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
