BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Rules, Declares Ofcom
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to transmit a evening declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are directing the corporation to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent served in a position in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to erode the very considerable degrees of credibility that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
