BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's report declared: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's father occupied a role in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of confidence that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
