BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Ofcom
The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The authority's statement said: "Our investigation found that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the very considerable levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from iPlayer in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in July an internal BBC review found it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
