BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Media Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to transmit a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a role in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to damage the significantly high levels of confidence that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's family links came to light, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
