BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Media Standards, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to transmit a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
