BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, States Ofcom
The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to air a evening statement about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit 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," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our probe determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's father occupied a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to damage the significantly high amounts of trust that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the organization's content policies 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 significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
